Taffy Pull!

I'm going to pull taffy this Halloween. I've invited some crazy cooks over to help me... apparently you have to pull, pull, and pull— until you collapse— that's when you know it's ready.

The taffy link I've posted is from the wonderful Exploratorium in San Francisco, a "kids" science museum that adults go crazy over. It's actually called "a museum of art, science, and human perception." Yes!

We're throwing a candy-making cabal. It all started last year when I had the grand idea that we should make chocolate razor blades, as a spoof on trick-or-treat hysteria. But I could not figure out how to make the "blades" thin enough!

This year, I'm just going to get down to the basics. I want to use some old-school candy recipes that I used to make with my mom when I was a kid— see below. My fondest memories of my mom are from when we made candy together, and then ate it all in one sitting watching "Get Smart" on our black-and-white Zenith.

The first is the Fudge recipe that we found on the back page of Ian Fleming's book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Yes, it's James Bond fudge!  I've translated all the British measurements for you:

Monsier Bon-Bon’s Secret Fooj

1 lb. granulated sugar (2 c.)
1 small can evaporated milk
1/4 lb. finest butter (8 T.)
1 T. water
1 T. corn syrup
4 T. unsweetened chocolate

Put all the ingrediets into a saucepan. Melt slowly on a low gas until the mixture thickens slightly and is absolutely smooth. Turn up gas and boil very quickly until it forms into a soft ball when a sample is dropped into cold water. Remove from heat and beat well with wooden spoon. Pour the whole mixture into a flat greased pan, mark in squares, and leave to set. When cold, DEVOUR!

from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the Magical Car, by Ian Fleming, Random House, 1964

The next two recipes are from one of my mom's old stand-by's— Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook.

This was one of the first cookbooks that urged women to use processed foods. Every woman is referred to by her husband's name, like "Mrs. Joe White." There are special celebration meals like "Jimmy Durante's Choice" and "Famous Violinist Recommends Two Vegetable Dinners." (Yehudi Menuhin, if you must know).

The candy recipes are real thing, however. You can't fake homemade candy. They're described in the "Teenage Special" section of the book, which begins this way: 

Combine in a large home kitchen or amusement room:

• special friends
• favorite records
• conversation
• candy-making

You can't go wrong with Betty C.!

Penuche
“Oh, how I love it,” exclaims Mrs. J. A. O’Gordon of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, as she pases Penche in her antiu silver bonbon dish.

Combine in saucepan:
2 c. brown sugar, packed
1 c. sugar
1 c. cream (20%)
2 T. light corn syrup
1/4 t. salt

Stire over medium heat to dissolve sugar Cook to 234 degrees or until a little dropped in cold water forms a soft ball. Stir occastionally. Remove from heat.

Add:
2 T. butter

Let stand without stiffing until bottom  of pan is lukewarm (120 degrees) .

Add:
1 t. vanilla

Beat until creamy.

Mix in:
1/2 c. chopped nuts

Pour into greased 8” or 9” square pan. Cut into squares. Amount: 36 1 1/2” pieces.

From Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook, McGraw/Hill, 1956


Divinity
Jan Korsland of our staff says: “This never-fail Divinity was often made Sunday afternoons in our farm hous in Iowa. Black walnuts gathered from our yard made it extra delicious.”

Place in saucepan over low heat:
4 c. sugar
1 c. light corn syrup
3/4 c. water

Stir until sugar is dissolved, then cook without stirring to 255 degrees, a hard ball.

Remove from heat and pour, beating constantly, in a fine stream, into:
3 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Contine beating until mixture holds its shape and loses its gloss.

Add:
1 t. vanilla
1 c. broken walnuts

Drop quickly from the tip of spoon onto waxed paper in individual peaks... or spread in a buttered pan and cut into one inch squares when firm.

From Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook, McGraw/Hill, 1956

If you have any tips for me on the "pull" part of the taffy-making... or any other candy-making recommendations, please spill!

Comments

[TinaMarie]

It's way too late now, but I only have one bit of candy-making advice: never trust a recipe that doesn't include temperatures, and always calibrate your thermometer before you start.

Okay, that was two pieces of advice.

I've pulled taffy by hand, and it was exhausting to do alone. I'm doing candy canes for Christmas presents this year, and they're just a firm pulled taffy. On TV, people have hooks in their ceilings to fling the taffy over, but I'm going to try a variation on that: An over-door coat hook. People say it makes the pulling less exhausting because gravity helps you...ask me if it works after Christmas, if I can still type. :)

[Susie Bright]

Well, I want photos of your biceps. This exercise in bad taffy nearly killed me. And I know how to calibrate my computer's battery, but not my candy thermometer, so I can see that more research is involved.

On the other hand, the penuche and fudge turned out great!

[Dennis the taffyman]

Taffy Pulls are fun, but the recipe at the Exploratorium in San Francisco has too high a tempurature. I do taffy pulls professionally and own a taffy store, and a better tempurature is to cook to 240 degrees. As you go higher, the candy becomes more difficult to pull. It makes the pulling much easier and much more fun!

[Dennis]

The reason I recommend 240 degrees is that was the tempurature the candy maker at Knott's Berry Farm gave us back in 1970, and its been marked on every candy thermometer we've ever used. YO ucan try high temps, but I find this one works.