Salt Water Taffy

Taffy has always amazed me, especially the part of pulling taffy. I find it incredible how the air that gets into the taffy changes the taste as well as the color and texture! I've wanted for a long time to get my hands on some taffy, and so this was a ton of fun! I actually made three batches of it, trying out different things for each and in this Instructable I'll show you what I found worked the best!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp butter (plus more for greasing your hands, knife, container and everything else that the taffy can stick to :)
• 1/3 cup corn syrup
• 1/2 water

Utensils:

• pan
• candy thermometer
• a container to cool the taffy in
• knife/scissors
• wax paper

Make sure that your pan is complete dry. If not, it'll cause the sugar/cornstarch to stick to the bottom and sides, making it really hard to fully incorporate everything else. It could also leave you with chunks of sugar later on, which will end up ruining your taffy.

Alright, done with the warning! Now, take your sugar, salt and cornstarch and add them to the (dry!) pan. Stir them together thoroughly until there is no difference between them. It doesn't take very long for that to happen.

Add your butter to the sugar and cornstarch mixture. Don't try and stir this yet! It'll be easier to let the butter melt when the wet ingredients are added.

Now, add your corn syrup and water to the dry ingredients and butter. Stir them together until somewhat incorporated (you can leave the butter in it's chunk, though). You mostly just don't want the sugar on the bottom when you turn on the heat, or else you'll probably end up with just a lot of burned sugar

Put your pan on the stove and turn up the heat to a medium-high. It'll start bubbling almost immediately- which is good- just don't stir it. Stirring could cause crystallization in the sugar and that is the last thing we want in our smooth taffy!

Continue to heat the taffy until your thermometer reads 248°F.

While you're waiting for the candy to reach the right temperature (believe me, it takes a bit of time!), butter your container. I recommend buttering the sides as well as the bottom, because depending on the size of your container the taffy could go well up the walls. And you do not want to have that stuff stuck to your container!

Once the taffy has reached 248°F, take the pan off of the heat. Then, add a few drops (or 1/2 tsp, if you want to be exact) of vanilla extract into the taffy. Stir until well combined.

Pour the taffy into the buttered container, then immediately give it a good sprinkling of salt. It'll take a little while to cool, just be checking it every once in a while to see if it's ready. If it's had enough time cooling (it should still be warm when you can pull it), it will be pliable and no longer in a liquid form.

Take the taffy out of the container and begin pulling it. It's really easy, though it will give you a bit of a work out :) But, hey, that's not always a bad thing, especially if you're going to eat that taffy when it's done!

Keep pulling the taffy until it becomes opaque. You can really see the difference in color between the first and third photos.

Roll out the taffy into a rope, then cut into bite sized chunks with your buttered knife. Make sure the knife is buttered because the taffy will stick to it!

Cut out square pieces of wax paper for your taffy wrappers. To wrap, take a piece of taffy and place it at the top of the wax paper. Then roll the wax paper around the taffy, twisting the excess on the top and bottom to keep the taffy in the wrapper. Continue with all of the taffy.

And there you have it! Eight easy steps to make some delicious salt water taffy! I'd love to see your results if you make the taffy! Enjoy!