Make maple taffy with snow!
Sometimes we forget how much fun snow can be when we're inundated with it during the wintertime.
During this month's Nature Tots program we wanted to remind people the joys of snow, and to conclude the event we even made some maple syrup snow taffy.
It's a pretty easy process to do even at home.
Start with a pot of maple syrup. It really doesn't even matter how much you use, if you want more pieces, use more syrup. About 1/4 cup of syrup will yield 3-4 pieces of taffy.
Pour the 100 percent pure maple syrup into a pot, with a candy thermometer in the liquid.
Turn the heat up to high and the syrup will boil quickly. Stir the syrup while it boils so the bottom doesn't scorch and wait until the thermometer reaches the soft ball level, about 240 degrees.
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Have a pan of packed snow ready, or take your boiling liquid outside to a clean patch of snow. Pour the liquid in fat line onto the snow.
Leave the liquid to cool for only 2-3 seconds and then press your popsicle stick into the snow. Roll the stick around and around, creating a ball of taffy on the stick.
If you would rather, you can also just leave pieces of taffy in the snow and eat them without a stick.
Enjoy!
opens IMAGE file Try these other easy winter activities:
Snow dough
Snow slime
Hatching dinosaur eggs