Snow candy from Little House in the Big Woods

My girls absolutely love The Little House books and they begged to make this candy for the longest time before we finally tried it.  Now they enjoy making it even more than snow ice cream!  A few notes we learned:  My girls are unfortunately no longer a fan of molasses.  We switched the recipe to maple syrup and they loved it!  I actually only make a half recipe because it is so sweet and they don't need much (although they would eat it until they made themselves sick if I let them!)  I'm not one for measuring much, (I know, it is so bad for a recipe blogger!) but I add in a few extra pinches of brown sugar since syrup isn't as thick as molasses.  It always works for us!

Ingredients:

1 cup molasses or maple syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

Directions: Fill pans of snow.  Gather fresh clean snow into the pans and leave them outside in the cold.  In a small saucepan, stir the molasses and sugar together over medium heat. Heat the mixture to just boiling, stirring frequently (around 245 degrees Fahrenheit, firm ball stage).  Test the candy by dropping a bit in a glass of cold water.  If it makes the water cloudy, it is not ready yet. Once it stays together as candy in the water, it is ready. Remove the pan from the heat and carefully pour the molasses mixture into pans of snow.  You have about 10 or 15 minutes until the molasses starts getting difficult to pour.  Put any leftovers in the freezer (or outside) still on the snow. If you store it without the snow, it will turn into goo.