Makin' Taffy

Right before I went on "vacation" I found a great post on how to make your own taffy at Skip To My Lou. So, I made some last week!

It actually tasted pretty good - not Laughy Taffy good, but good enough.

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If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can do what I did - rig up your digital probe thermometer to stay in one place, just above the bottom of the pot. As you can see, a binder clip worked for me. ;)


Getting the liquid to 250 degrees took for-ev-er.
It seriously took 20 minutes for the temp to go from 220 to 250.
Sheesh.


After mixing in my color and flavor, I poured it into my cookie sheet to cool.


Sorry I don't have pics of the taffy being pulled - kinda hard to take shots of that while you're the one doing it!

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Here are a some "pointers" for you, should you decide to make some, too:

1. Allow plenty of time for this - it's not hard, but time consuming. From start (getting out my first ingredient) to finish (wrapping all the taffy) took about 2 hours. I did this all by myself, so it'd take you much less time if you have helpers.
   
2. Don't use cooking spray to grease your hands. Even if it is butter flavored. It makes the taffy taste a little...off. Just use regular butter, like the recipe says.
   
3. Be patient when pulling the taffy. It may not stick together and may become multiple strands of very sticky taffy at the beginning. Keep working and breathe deep. I found it helpful to twist as I pulled, so the strands merged together better.
   
4. Split the batch into several sections. I cut my batch into four parts. This made it much more manageable to pull.
5. Wrap them in the plastic liners from your cereal. It's basically waxed paper (except don't heat it, it'll melt), so go ahead and recycle those babies!! I cut it into rectangles and the taffy wrapped up nicely! I needed about 4 bags to wrap all the taffy from one batch.