I think the recipe looks pretty much fine. I suspect you had too much flour in there....either packed the cup or the flour was particularly dense. It would have a texture very much like a sweet pastry dough. A pretty standard proportion for pastry si 1/3 cup fat to 1 cup of flour...and 1/3 cup of sugar to that making it a sweet crust...and the syrup would be very like the water in a pastry dough. Try it again...and only add 2 cups of flour....and add the 3 rd cup as needed. I will bet it will work better. I think you had too heavy a hand with the flour. Linda C

5-25-2023: Update: Sugar maple has come through the last couple of winters in good condition. Over 13 ft. tall. I have watered by mid-season every year since last posting. It's been near drought conditions; except we've had good amount of snow melt in spring and one or two spring rains, not enough to just let it go solo. Replaced mulch ring today, I hate watering grass. :-) ////

Your problem sounds more complicated than what you describe. More information and adding some pictures would help those reading this visualize the situation. Have you been watering the tree up until you worked on the mulch problem? Working on a stressed tree where you might have broken surface roots with the rake could explain the wilting. How much top soil did you add to the surface of the mound? It would take more than a couple inches of dirt to smother roots imo. How deep is the mulch? You only need 2-3" on top, to protect the soil from the hot sun and hold moisture. I personally would be hesitant using freshly ground mulch, unless I knew it was completely dead wood and bark. Heaping stuff on that contains green or sap wood, could result in various gases given off as it breaks down, at least for the first week or two. Did you water it good after you were finished? And continue to water as needed afterwards? If it's been really hot and dry there as you describe, anything that upsets the tree could cause it to react and show signs of stress.

I'd remove the right fork in the second picture immediately. While it is a strong joint as already pointed out, it's too low on the tree for my liking. I prefer my trees to have a single trunk until at least head height or just above. And more importantly, if left to grow, it will likely prevent that straighter, center, natural leader from developing branches on that side of the tree. Think of it as "hogging the sunlight" as it continues its vigorous growth. I'd then cut the other two remaining large branches back a couple feet to slow them down. Those can be removed at a later time once the tree has begun to develop more branching on the current leader. How tall was the tree when planted? If it was a seedling or short whip, that is a remarkable amount of growth for only 4 years. Which leads me to not worry that much about stunting growth with what I have recommended to prune off above. Plus, in my opinion, any loss in vigor is an acceptable trade-off for pruning to create a fuller-looking young tree with better shape, better branching. As Embothrium has suggested, you should try to find a pruning manual with good illustrations to help you out on your future tree trimming.