Difficutly: moderate
Time: 5 Min
Portion: 1 serving
Ingredients:
| • 2 cups sugar |
|
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch |
|
• 1 cup light corn syrup |
|
• 2 teaspoons glycerin (optional) |
| • 3/4 cup water |
| • 2 tablespoons butter |
| • 1 teaspoon salt |
| • 1/4 to 1 teaspoon flavoring (such as vanilla, lemon, maple, or mint) |
| • 3 drops food coloring (optional) |
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| • a large (3- to 4-quart) saucepan |
| • a wooden spoon |
| • a candy thermometer |
| • a pastry brush |
| • waxed paper or plastic wrap |
| • a marble slab or cookie sheet |
| • greased scissors or butter knife |
Directions:
| 1. Mix together sugar and cornstarch in the saucepan. |
| 2. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the corn syrup, glycerin, water, butter, and salt. Place the saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. |
|
3. Continue stirring until mixture begins to boil, then let cook, undisturbed, until it reaches about 270° F or the soft-crack stage. Wash down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in warm water while the syrup cooks. |
| 3. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add food coloring and flavoring. Stir gently, then pour onto a greased marble slab or into a shallow greased cookie sheet to cool. |
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4. When the taffy is cool enough to handle, grease your hands with oil or butter and pull the taffy until it's light in color and has a satiny gloss. You can have a friend help with this step, which should take about 10 minutes. |
| 5. Roll the pulled taffy into a long rope, about 1/2 inch in diameter, and cut it with greased scissors or a butter knife into 1-inch-long pieces. Let the pieces sit for about half an hour before wrapping them in wax paper or plastic wrap and twisting the ends of the wrapper. |
Notes:
What Else Can I Try?• Try leaving out the corn syrup and see what happens! When we tried this, we ended up with a crystallized candy with a melt-in-your-mouth texture very similar to after-dinner mints.• Try not pulling some of the taffy—what is the texture of the resulting candy?• Try adding 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda before pouring out the syrup. This will create many tiny bubbles that should result in a lighter, chewier texture.• Try twisting together taffy ropes of different colors or flavors for fun new combinations.