Tricolor Taffy Food

CHOCOLATE TAFFY

Steps:

• In heavy medium saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Stir until thoroughly combined. Add corn syrup, water, and vinegar to pan and place over medium heat. Stir until sugar and cocoa dissolve, raise heat to high and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low, clip candy thermometer to side of pan and cook until mixture reaches 260 degrees F. Remove pan from heat, add the butter and stir. Butter edges of sheet pan, line with silicone baking sheet and pour on taffy. Allow to cool until you are able to handle it.
• Once you are able to handle the taffy, don vinyl gloves, butter them, and begin to fold taffy in thirds using the silicone mat. Pick up taffy and begin to pull folding the taffy back on itself repeatedly twisting as you go. Taffy is done when it lightens in color, takes on a sheen, and becomes too hard to pull. Roll into log, cut into fourths, roll each fourth into a 1-inch wide log, and cut into 1-inch pieces. Making sure to keep pieces separated or they will stick to each other. Wrap individual pieces of candy in waxed paper. Store in airtight container 3 to 5 days.

TAFFY

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, place all the ingredients except extracts, and gently stir them to combine. Place a candy thermometer on the side of the pan and bring to a boil, stirring only to prevent burning. Cook to hardball stage (265 to 270 degrees), remove from the heat, stir in the extracts, and pour onto a silpat-lined sheet pan or buttered sheet pan. Let it cool enough to handle then start rolling it into a log and stretching or pulling the taffy to work air in and make it white and opaque. Keep pulling and twisting until it hardens. Form long ropes of taffy, then cut them into pieces.
• Some tips when making taffy: Oil the top 1-inch of the saucepan's wall to keep the sugar from boiling over. Always use a pan bigger than you think you need to prevent boiling over. Always use a burner as big or bigger than your pan's bottom. Never scrape the bottom of the pan at the end, just pour out the syrup. Wash down the sides of the pan with a clean wet pastry brush to avoid crystallization.

TAFFY

Steps:

• In a saucepan, mix together the sugar, corn syrup and butter, stirring over high heat until mixture reaches 240 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Reduce heat and slowly add milk and cook until thermometer reaches 248 degrees F.
• Pour mixture onto the 4 buttered baking trays. When taffy is cool enough to handle, butter your hands and bring corners to the center to form into a ball. Take all 4 balls and form into 1 large ball.
• Place onto a table or marble slab so you and a helper can start the pulling process. Start folding and stretching your taffy ball. You should pull the taffy from your friend, fold over and over in your hands, then let your friend pull the taffy from you, repeating this process until the taffy turns light in color. Pulling the taffy adds tiny air bubbles throughout the candy, making it lighter and chewier.
• Place the taffy on your pulling table/slab, add the color and flavoring, and start the pulling process all over again until the liquids are well incorporated and the taffy is the color you want.
• Now you can lay the taffy on the table that has a small amount of cornstarch to keep it from sticking. While still soft, press into a 3/4-inch thick sheet. Take a yardstick and cut a straight line with buttered scissors or knife. Continue cutting the taffy into 1/2 to 3/4-inch wide strips. Cut strips into pieces that you want to wrap, about 2-inches. Begin wrapping the pieces in the waxed paper and twisting the ends.

TAFFY PULL

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, stir together the sugar, corn syrup, water, salt, and glycerin with a wooden spoon. Cook over medium heat, stirring now and then until a candy thermometer reads 255 degrees F. Stir in the butter. Pour the mixture onto a greased flat pan and fold over the edges with a spatula to keep them from hardening.
• When the candy is cool enough to handle, brush with lemon juice. Kids grease their hands with butter, take a lump of taffy, and pull and stretch it until it is light and slightly firm. The longer they stretch, pull, and twist the candy, the more air it will have and the closer to beach taffy it will get. The lump can then be cut with scissors into bite-size pieces. When cool, wrap in waxed paper.