How to Make Maple Candy Using a Microwave
Food and Nutrition- Grade:
- 5
- Teacher:
- Justin Dye
This past summer, I went to Simon Fraser University, and I ate some super tasty Maple Candy! But sadly, my mom said that it was too expensive and we stopped buying them. So, I had an idea: Make our own Maple Candy from Maple Syrup, so that I can enjoy the tasty treat without paying $12.99 for 12 pieces. I planned to make yummy Maple Candy from my kitchen using the stove, like some youtubers. But my mom won't let me, because it’s too dangerous to work with boiling Maple Syrup on the stove. So instead, I thought of a much safer alternative: a microwave. In my experiments, I found that the best cracking condition for making Maple Candy is microwaving 45mL of room temperature syrup at 1000W for 90 sec. In my experiments, I also noticed that the microscopic images of Home-made and Store-bought Maple Candy looked the same and had the same UV properties. From my single-blind taste test experiment, I also found that the taste of my Home-made and Store-bought Maple Candy is very similar! After winning my School Science Fair, I repeated my experiments 2 more times and found out that most of my answers where very reproduceable with very low sample S.D. From my experiments, I learned that when I want some maple candy, I can just add 3 ml of room temperature Maple Syrup in 15 large silicone wells and heat it in the microwave for 90 sec at 1000W.
Excellent project! You did a great job designing your experiment and explaining all of your procedures. I appreciated the variety of trials that you ran testing both time and temperature of the microwave. It is clear that you love this candy and I love that you were able to use science to help get something that you really enjoy whenever you want it!
Good experiment and I liked that you created your own recipe rather than using one off the internet. That is very experimental!
I also liked learning from your research about microwave power options an crackling temps.
Good job!
Amazing work! Your question was clear, and your experiment was very organized. I was impressed by your data tables, graph, and how you used a single-blind taste test to compare your candy to store-bought. Your charts and graph made your results easy to understand, and you explained your conclusion well.
Well done.
This project is very impressive! You controlled the experiment and explored multiple heating methods, powers, and stirring techniques to find the optimal cracking condition for microwave-made maple candy. I like how you combined both scientific measurements and a taste test to validate your results.