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Molasses Taffy
2 cups molasses 1 cup granulated sugar 3/4 cup water 1/8 teaspoon soda 4 tablespoons butter 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Cook the molasses, sugar and water slowly to the hard-ball stage, or 260 degrees F., stirring during the latter part of the cooking to prevent its burning. Remove from the fire, add the butter, soda and vanilla and stir enough to mix. Pour into a greased pan and, when cool enough to handle, pull it into a long rope and cut with scissors into small pieces.
A straightforward pulled taffy that needs only a thermometer and a pair of hands willing to work while the candy is still hot. Everything hinges on hitting the temperature exactly.
- 260F is the whole recipeUse a candy or digital probe thermometer and take it off the heat at 260F, the figure the recipe names. Undercooked syrup gives taffy that stays slack and sags; taken well past the mark it turns brittle and tends to snap rather than pull.
- The soda will foamBaking soda dropped into hot molasses syrup will froth up, so use a pan with plenty of headroom above the syrup. Stir only enough to combine, as the recipe directs.
- MolassesUse unsulphured light or dark molasses rather than blackstrap, which is bitter and scorches more readily.
- Pan and coolingA greased 9x13-inch metal pan is about right; the thinner the sheet, the faster it reaches handling temperature. Fold the cooler edges toward the centre with a buttered scraper as it sets so it cools evenly.
- Butter your handsGrease palms generously before pulling. Pull, fold, and pull again until the candy lightens from dark brown to a matte tan and stiffens noticeably, roughly ten to fifteen minutes. That colour change is the sign enough air is in.
- Pick a dry dayMolasses and sugar are both hygroscopic, and in humid weather the finished pieces turn sticky quickly however well they were pulled.
- Cutting and storageScissors are still the best tool: stretch to a rope about half an inch thick and snip straight across, twisting the rope a quarter turn between cuts. Wrap each piece in waxed paper or the batch will fuse into one lump.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; the batch is a large one, well over a pound of finished candy, and will make several dozen small pieces depending on how thin the rope is pulled.