My mom told me how she'd once read that taffy pulling became popular in the days of courting to keep amorous hands busy. I don't know if that's true but I like to think it is. I, however, had to pull this raspberry-flavored saltwater taffy all on my own because other hands were in other geographical locations. And let me tell you, it was quite a workout. But it was worth it!
Salt water taffy
Yields approx. 50 pieces/1.5 pounds
2 cups sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup water
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp flavoring oil or 1 tbsp flavoring extract of your choice
a few drops food coloring to match your flavor
Prepare a heat safe 8x8 dish and a spatula by lightly buttering it. If you are making more than one flavor, prepare a dish and spatula for each flavor. Have your food coloring and flavorings ready.
In a saucepan, sift together sugar and cornstarch. Stir in corn syrup, water, salt and butter. Place over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Cover pan and bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Uncover, place thermometer in pan and cook to 256 - 266 degrees F. The lower temperature will result in a chewier taffy, the higher a more brittle texture. Remove from heat and add food color and flavoring. Stir gently, then pour into prepared dish/pan.
When cool enough to handle (but still warm), butter your hands and pull the warm candy with your fingertips, pulling out to about 12 inches at first. Quickly turn candy back from fingertips of one hand to the other hand, then catch center and pull again. This will incorporate air into the candy.
Continue pulling until taffy is light in color and has a satiny gloss, about twenty minutes. Pull into a long rope and cut into small squares with greased scissors.
Wrap taffy in waxed paper squares, twisting ends to seal. Good luck finding a bowl big enough to hold it and enough people to eat it!
I'll be honest, I haven't had much trouble finding people to eat this. It's much better (and by that I mean easier to chew) if you warm up a piece in your hand or pocket for a few minutes before eating it.
On a completely different note, I got a kitten!
His name is Klaus (which is pronounced like "cloud" but with an s). My boyfriend's mom saved him from traffic on Brodie and let me adopt him, and am I ever glad she did! He used to be incredibly skittish because of his car trauma, but after a few days he warmed up to people and now he is super playful and affectionate! He is a lap cat:
Even my mom is excited to meet him (although she wouldn't openly admit that) and she is a dog person. And on one more completely different note, I wrote a blog post for the Jalopy and if you feel like devoting more of your time to the random crap I like to spout from my brain, flop on over here and read some words!
WHY do they call it "Salt Water Taffy"? There's no salt water in it.
ReplyDeleteThe story goes that Mr. Bradley's boardwalk store was damaged by storm tide water in the
summer of 1883. Included in the damage was his supply of taffy. The next day his
first customer was a girl who asked for a bag of taffy. Being in a bit of bad humor
because of his soggy taffy, Bradley replied, "You mean salt water taffy." Apparently,
Bradley's mother overheard his remark and suggested that he the candy that name.
In the summer of 1884, he opened his stand selling "Salt Water Taffy." The rest is
history. Atlantic City directories show no listing of any store selling "salt water taffy"
until 1889. So make what you will of the story.The phrase "salt water taffy,"
apparently was never copyrighted and has been used by various candy makers
over the years. The peak of the taffy frenzy occurred in the 1920's when there were
over400 companiesmaking and marketing the product.