Saltwater Taffy—12 Weeks of Christmas Treats

Saltwater Taffy

Today’s post is a fun treat to make for the holidays that kids will love helping you make.  A couple days ago, I made Saltwater Taffy and Parker and Taylor ended up helping me.

 I got the recipe for the taffy in a GREAT new cookbook I got for my birthday recently.  If you like making candy, you NEED to get this book!  Read this post, then head to this link on Amazon for The Sweet Book of Candy Making, by Elizabeth LaBau, a young pastry chef who is married and has a really cute six month old baby boy.  (Love her, she blogged along with the Tuesdays With Dorie group while we baked from Baking From My Home to Yours and I consider her one of those “friends who I haven’t met yet”.)  She has a delicious blog, too.  Check out Sugar Hero!

 In the recipe for Saltwater Taffy in the book, Liz shares the wonderful “secret” ingredient—secret because it was new to me, to making softer, chewy taffy, instead of hard tack taffy.  I have made taffy a number of times over the years and have always been frustrated and annoyed that it turns to hard candy, especially if you don’t pull it fast and soon enough.  Should I tell you the secret?  Or should you just have to get the book?  You know what, I’m not going to give you Liz’ recipe, but I’ll tell you that little secret.  After boiling the sugar and adding your chosen flavor, you pour it onto a baking sheet and add a little bit of marshmallow crème.  As soon as it is cool enough, you fold it together and start pulling and incorporated the marshmallow (and coloring). 

I’ll never make taffy again without adding marshmallow crème.  It’s the little things, people. ;) 

So just as I was getting ready to pull the taffy, I had two little helpers comes beg to get to pull some, too.  It was nice to have helpers!  And they were certainly thrilled with the results of making their own taffy.  So much so that after we made the green and white mint flavored taffy, Parker bugged me the rest of the day to make another.

Pulling Taffy

So that night, we made a pink taffy and flavored it with raspberry flavoring.  We also made that one just a little softer and not quite as hard as the first round by not boiling it to quite so high a temperature.  I think it worked well to our advantage because we live at a high altitude. 

Happy Little Taffy Making and Eating Helpers

Next time, I want to try banana flavoring, because my favorite Laffy Taffy is banana!  I think licorice flavor would be good, too.  The boys keep snitching the ones we’ve already made, even when I keep trying to hide it in different places.

Thanks again to Brenda from Meal Planning Magic for hosting the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats.