Hand-Pulled Taffy
Grease a small glass baking dish and gather a candy thermometer and waxed paper. Set aside a bit of margarine or coconut oil for greasing your hands as you pull.
- Cook30 min
- Total30 min
- Serves12
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp. cornstarch
- ½ cup light corn syrup
- 1 tbsp. non dairy margarine or coconut oil, plus more for your hands as you pull
- 6 tbsp. water
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. vegetable glycerin (optional—see note)
- ½ tsp. orange oil, lemon oil, or other extract flavoring
Method
- Grease a small glass baking dish and gather a candy thermometer and waxed paper. Set aside a bit of margarine or coconut oil for greasing your hands as you pull.
- Whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, corn syrup, margarine, water, salt, and glycerin, if using, in a 1-quart saucepan until no lumps remain and heat over medium heat. Stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil.
- Cook, undisturbed, just until the mixture reaches 265 to 270°F on your candy thermometer (or Soft Crack Stage if using the Cold Water Method) and then immediately remove from the heat and add the flavoring.
- Pour the liquid taffy into the greased baking dish and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, or until easy to handle. Once you know you won’t burn yourself, grease your (very clean) hands and grab the taffy and form into a log. Begin to stretch and pull at the taffy, creating ropes and then folding and repulling to add air into the candy. Continue pulling for about 15 minutes, until the color has lightened significantly and feels light and airy, like taffy. Cut into bite-size pieces and then wrap individually in waxed paper. Store in airtight container for up to 1 month.
