Do you like taffy? I don’t remember ever being the biggest fan of it, but when I came across the recipe in Mark Bittman’s How to Bake Everything, I had to try it. It doesn’t have a lot of ingredients, and it seemed fairly easy. But it’s a fairly easy and straight forward recipe to do and it tastes amazing!! Trust me, they’re worth it! And to make it a different flavor or more festive, all you have to do is substitute the vanilla for any kind of flavor extract and add some food coloring! For the second batch I made Orange Creamsicle. I added in 1 tsp vanilla extract and 2 tsp of orange extract. 😋 Neat trick huh?
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tbsp vegan butter
2 c sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
1 c light corn syrup
1 tbsp vanilla extract (or any flavor extract you want)
1/4 tsp baking soda
Directions:
Grease a baking sheet ( it can be any size, it’s just a place for you to put the candy to let it cool)
In a saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt and combine (either with a whisk or a spoon)
Add the corn syrup and 1/4 c lukewarm water in the saucepan and combine
Clip your thermometer into the pot (make sure it’s as centered as possible and not touching the bottom of the pan)
Place the pan on the stove over high heat
Stir occasionally until the mixture begins to boil
Once it starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium, and stop stirring
Wipe the sides of the pan down with a pastry brush and water if sugar crystals are forming
Once the mixture reaches your desired temperature (in this case it’s 260 F hard ball stage unless you're high altitude, then adjust accordingly) remove it from the oven
Mix in the vegan butter, vanilla, and baking soda (it will bubble like crazy when you first start mixing, but it will calm down shortly)
Pour the mixture into the greased baking pan and let it cool slightly or until you can handle the mixture
Once the candy has cooled enough for you to handle, butter or grease up your hands and start to pull the taffy
Pull it and fold it back on itself and keep repeating until it’s lighter in color and opaque (you can’t see through it) Usually 10 - 15 minutes
Once the candy is pulled, butter a cutting board, and roll the candy out on it
Then, butter a knife or a bench scraper, and begin cutting the taffy into bite size pieces (or whatever size you want. That’s the fun part of making your own taffy. You’re in charge.)
If you want to be extra, no judgement here!, feel free to wrap the pieces individually, or just make sure they’re not touching each other and covered in wax paper
Store them at room temperature and enjoy!
These are some websites I found that helped me to figure out what went wrong (besides my obvious mistake haha).
If you want softer chewier taffy, boil the sugar to firm ball/hard ball stage. (This recipe tells you to cook the sugar to hard ball stage, so it’s your choice what you want to cook your taffy at.)
A good site if you're at high altitude: