Education:Science Projects: Maple Syrup Candy
Gather the things you'll need first.
Drizzle the boiled syrup over the crushed ice.
The hardened crystals create interesting shapes of maple candy.
In the early days of the United States, the colonists did not have much sugar to make things sweet. But they could get the sap from maple trees, and they had a special trick for making it into candy: they boiled it and then poured it on snow! Try it yourself!
What you need
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 microwave-safe container and a microwave oven
• 1 small bowl half filled with crushed ice
• a spoon
• a fork
• an adult to help you with the boiling syrup—it's HOT!
What you do
1. Pour the syrup into the microwave-safe container.
2. Cook it in the microwave on high power for five minutes.
3. Get an adult to help you take the container out of the microwave and put it on a safe surface near the bowl of ice.
4. Very carefully spoon the maple syrup over the crushed ice.
Watch what happens! Is the syrup still liquid? Use the fork to pick out the syrup. Depending on how you poured the syrup onto the ice you will have some interesting shapes to snack on!
Why this happens
When the syrup was boiled it was chemically changed so that the individual sugar crystals in it linked together to make a solid form, and the coldness of the ice made the forms harden more quickly.
