maple syrup candy advice needed

Trying to learn how to make maple sugar candy today from watching youtubers... Just ruined 2 cups of maple syrup and one saucepan. It turned into hard candy at the temperature I was supposed to start stirring. The instruction said boil to 242 Fahrenheit and let cool to 200 Fahrenheit then stir and pour into the candy molds. That didn't work. I am trying to make the sugary melt in your mouth style candy, not hard candy.

Okay, looked this up on the internet and now it is saying I screwed up when I placed the saucepan in cold water to cool down faster. Also said I should have cooled it down ( without touching it) to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

When I made maple syrup, I didn’t do it very precisely and the leftovers crystallized on their own into candy. I think when a bit more water evaporates from the syrup and then it’s allowed to cool down, crystals start forming. My guess is that the stirring distributes the crystals evenly through the mixture to seed it, and then it’s poured and sets?

When I was taught how to make candy (of any kind), I was taught to use a thermometer.

I you do not have a thermometer you can use the hard ball stage or soft ball stage method depending on temperature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_making