Want to learn how to make maple butter at home with a stand mixer? If you’ve ever wondered how to make maple butter, this post is for you. Making maple butter is fairly easy. Here are the steps to transform pure maple syrup into a pure maple cream spread.

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What is maple butter?

The name maple butter, also known as maple cream, is kind of a misleading name: there’s no cream or butter in pure maple butter. Maple butter is a spread made from pure maple syrup that has been boiled, cooled, and whipped so that the syrup crystallizes in just the right way to give it this spreadable smooth, creamy texture.

Maple butter is all about controlled crystallization of sugar. So, while you are trying to prevent sugar crystallization when making caramel sauces, with maple butter, you are aiming to force the sugar to crystallize in just the right way to achieve the correct, soft, smooth, spreadable consistency. It’s readily available in the New England area, as well as Quebec and Ontario, where most maple products are made.

Maple cream, a.k.a. maple butter is not maple-flavoured butter nor maple-sweetened butter!

Though some will post “easy maple butter” recipes that are made by creaming together softened butter and maple syrup, that’s actually not what maple butter is at all! Don’t be fooled! Real maple butter is made from pure maple syrup. It’s a maple spread that is vegan and dairy free. If you want to make a maple compound butter by mixing butter and maple syrup, that’s another option and you can follow this honey butter recipe.

What do you do with maple butter?

How do you make maple butter spread at home? Tips and tricks

This maple butter recipe is the simplest of the maple syrup recipes and it’s made from only 1 ingredient, as a rule: maple syrup. The science behind maple butter is relatively simple. You just boil maple syrup until it reaches 235°F (that’s 112ºC), which is 22–24°F (12ºC) over the boiling point of water. By doing this, you are basically concentrating the sugar, making it easier to crystallize because all the tiny sugar molecules are now really close to each other in the syrup.

Icing the concentrated syrup quickly drops its temperature, again another step favouring crystallization (and specifically smaller, finer crystals over bigger, chunky crystals). In the final step, you stir the mixture for a very long time (crystallization is a process, so patience is key here): eventually it will turn opaque/creamy-looking and become maple butter.

I encourage you to sample after cooling the syrup both before and after the long stirring process because the mouth feel is really quite different, and that’s how you know it’s “done”. However, avoid sampling the boiling hot syrup. It may be tempting, but it’ll burn you really badly. Hungry for more recipes with maple syrup, I have a whole category of posts dedicated to baking with maple syrup to explore.

Prevent sugar syrups from boiling over with oil Though maple butter or maple cream is made from only maple syrup, you might have noticed that this maple butter recipe also calls for 1/4 tsp of canola oil (you could also add a little butter, if you prefer). There’s a reason for that oil. If you’ve ever boiled a large amount of maple syrup, you will probably have noticed that boiling maple syrup has a tendency to boil over and make a real mess of your stove if you aren’t careful. By adding a tiny amount (1/4 tsp) of canola oil to the pot, the chances of maple syrup boiling over are greatly reduced because the oil helps burst the larger bubbles. This trick with oil works with boiling pasta water, though some purists will argue that the little bit of oil may interfere with the sauce sticking to the pasta. I’ll leave that discussion for another time. Maple butter too hard to beat Temperature is key when making maple butter, just like when you are making maple fudge. Cooking the syrup enough to achieve the right concentration of sugar is key, but the cooling phase is also very important. You need to cool the syrup enough that the sugar will crystallize, but if you cool it too much, it will harden into a block that is impossible to whip. So how do you know how much to cool the mixture? A thermometer is your best bet, but it’s important to use the right thermometer for this job. Your thermometer has to be instant-read, which means your thermometer is fast to record a change in temperature. Some cheaper thermometers are not instant read, and they can take several minutes to register an increase or a drop in temperature. This kind of thermometer will not work here and you will inevitably cool the mixture too long. It will be too hard to beat. I used a Thermoworks Thermapen which can register temperatures and temperature changes within 3 seconds, which means you can catch the maple butter at exactly the right temperature! The Thermoworks DOT thermometer would be better suited for this recipe because you don’t have to hold the probe.

Maple butter still liquid after beating If you beat your cooked/cooled maple syrup for a long time and it never forms a creamy, opaque spread, this means the syrup wasn’t concentrated enough. Your best bet is to transfer the mixture back to the pot and cook it again. Maple butter storage and shelf life Maple butter, also known as maple cream, is a creamy spread made from 100% pure maple syrup. This spread is dairy free and vegan. Maple butter can be stored at room temperature in a sterilized mason jar for up to a month, but it’s best to refrigerate maple butter to help improve shelf life. At room temperature, the maple cream is more likely to break down and liquify: maple syrup may separate out. At room temperature, mold may also be an issue to watch out for. In the refrigerator, maple butter can be stored for up to 6 months. By the way, the same goes for maple syrup: store maple syrup in the fridge too to reduce mold production.

Print Pin 5 from 2 votes Maple butter Ever wonder how to make maple butter from pure maple syrup at home. This maple butter recipe will help you make creamy smooth maple butter from pure maple syrup at home. Cook Time 20 minutes Total Time 20 minutes Servings 24 Calories 56 kcal Author Janice Equipment Probe thermometer Artisan mixer Mason jars Ingredients 500 mL ( 2 cups ) pure maple syrup I used Grade A, amber syrup from Quebec

1/4 tsp ( 1/4 tsp ) canola oil Instructions In a deep saucepan, boil the maple syrup with the oil, until it reaches about 235°F (112ºC) on medium–high heat. Monitor the temperature using a fast-reading digital probe thermometer like this one from Thermoworks

Immediately, transfer the boiled syrup to your stand mixer bowl, and drop the bowl into a big ice bath to cool the syrup down to about 60°F (15–16ºC). Then let the syrup warm back up to room temperature.

With the paddle attachment, beat the syrup on low for a very, very long time (like 30 minutes even) until it turns opaque and the color of sesame butter (the texture on your tongue when you sample it will go from syrupy at the beginning of the process to very finely powdery).

Quickly transfer the maple butter to a large jar and store in the fridge.

If the maple butter separates at any point, just give it a good stir before using. Notes Temperature is very important when making maple butter (or maple cream) at home: use a thermometer so that you boil the maple syrup to the correct temperature (235ºF or 112ºC) and then you have to cool it down to the correct temperature (60ºF or 15–16ºC). This digital probe thermometer from Thermoworks is a good option: the DOT Tried this recipe? Mention @kitchenhealssoul or tag #kitchenhealssoul Nutrition Calories: 56 kcal | Carbohydrates: 14 g | Sodium: 1 mg | Potassium: 46 mg | Sugar: 12 g | Calcium: 23 mg

Where to buy maple butter (if you have zero desire to make it at home)

Maple butter spread, also called maple cream, is available where other maple products are sold, but as you can see, you can also make it at home. In Canadian grocery stores, it’s either in the aisle with the maple syrup or stocked next to the breakfast spreads (jams, jellies, peanut butters, caramel spreads). In Quebec and Ontario, maple producers usually have stores where you can stock up on maple products, including maple syrup, maple butter, maple sugar, and maple flakes. Farmers markets in Ontario, Quebec, and the New England area usually have maple stands run by local maple producers where you should be able to find maple butter.