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How to Pull Candy
Boil the candy until it becomes brittle when tried in water; then turn on a buttered platter. When cool enough to handle, butter your hands well, take up what candy you can easily handle, throw it over a buttered hook, and pull both ends toward you; then clap together and pull over the hook again, repeating the process until the candy is white and creamy. Flavor and color when ready for pulling. Cut into sticks.
This is a method rather than a formula: it assumes you already have a boiled sugar syrup on the stove and tells you what to do with it. The whole thing hinges on stopping the boil at the right stage and getting the mass onto the slab before it sets.
- "Brittle when tried in water""Brittle when tried in water" points to the hard-crack stage, roughly 300-310F on a modern thermometer: a drop of syrup lowered into cold water forms threads that snap rather than bend. Syrup stopped at a softer stage stays chewier and holds a stick shape less well.
- The platterA buttered marble slab or a heavy sheet pan lined with buttered parchment works better than china, which insulates and keeps the centre molten while the edges harden. Pour it into a slab a half-inch thick and fold the cooling edges toward the middle with a buttered scraper.
- Flavor and colorAdd these off the heat, after the boil, as the recipe says. Volatile oils such as peppermint or wintergreen are driven off if stirred into boiling syrup; flavouring oils rather than alcohol extracts are the usual choice, though this recipe gives no proportion.
- The hookA candy hook is a smooth metal hook fixed to a wall or post at a convenient working height, a known confectioner's and kitchen fitting. Without one, pull the batch between two people or between both hands, stretching to about two feet and doubling back.
- Why it turns whitePulling folds air into the sugar mass, and the trapped air scatters light. The change from clear amber to opaque satin is the main sign the work is done; how long it takes varies with the batch.
- Working temperatureHandle it hot but not scalding -- the recipe's own guide, 'cool enough to handle', is the real test. Buttered hands are the period protection; heavy cotton gloves under a film of butter give better grip. Hot sugar sticks to skin and keeps burning, so err on the side of letting it cool.
- Cutting into sticksTwist the pulled rope, roll it to an even thickness on the buttered slab, and cut with buttered kitchen shears while it is still pliable. Once it cools fully it shatters instead of cutting.
- HumidityPulled candy is hygroscopic and goes sticky within hours in damp weather. Make it on a dry day and store the cut sticks in an airtight tin, separated by waxed paper.