rants & recipes

Chocolate Taffy

Posted by ataraktos on 2012-01-21

Lately, I've wanted some taffy. I think it's because I see big bags of it at Trader Joe's. Since Trader Joe's brand has eggs in it, I walk right past it. Anyway, after last weekend's successful butterfinger/chocolate tempering experiment, I wanted to try some other kind of candy this weekend. So, after some trepidation about the pulling and watching an Alton Brown episode about Halloween candy, including his chocolate taffy, I decided to give it a shot.

I think it turned out pretty well. I should have halved the batch because this makes quite a bit. I gave half of the batch to Evin to share the pulling duty with me. He pulled his more than I pulled mine - mine hands were killing me - but I don't think his is significantly softer than mine, though it is a bit lighter in color. And he cut his pieces smaller than mine, which is probably better.

The final result is very chewy but when you finish a piece, there's none left stuck in your teeth or anything. The next time I make this, I may experiment with adding some cornstarch - a lot of taffy recipes call for cornstarch - and maybe cooking it a few degrees cooler. I'll also have wax paper on hand, to wrap with (though, so far, the oiled pieces haven't stuck together too bad, unwrapped, in an air tight container. And by "too bad", I mean it's possible to pry them apart.

The flavor is a dead ringer for BB Bats chocolate taffy/hard candy, though. Funny, I was just thinking about BB Bats the other day. I have strawberry powder and could try strawberry flavor taffy. Maybe next time. (A brief look-up online reveals that BB Bats have been discontinued. =(

Ingredients:
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2/3 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup light corn syrup
  • 1 tsp vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tbsp vegan butter
Instructions:
  1. Prep - Oil the sides of your stock pot. Oil silicone mat and place it in a jelly roll pan. Have ready scissors, vinyl gloves, extra fat/oil for pulling, cut squares of wax paper, if you want to individually wrap your candies.
  2. Mix sugar, cocoa and salt in heavy pan. I used a 2 quart pan with a heavy bottom.
  3. Add water, vinegar and corn syrup to sugar.
  4. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.
  5. Clip on candy thermometer.
  6. Turn up heat and bring mixture to a boil.
  7. Turn heat down to low or medium-low and cook until mixture reaches 260 degrees.
  8. Turn off heat, add butter, stirring to combine. Pour onto prepared silicone mat. Spread and mix in any remaining butter.
  9. When mixture is cool enough to handle, put on gloves and grease them.
  10. Fold mixture in half a few times, by folding over the edge of the mat.
  11. Pick up candy and begin to pull, twist and fold back on itself.
  12. When candy has a dull sheen, has become lighter in color and is getting stiff and difficult to pull, it's ready to be cut.
  13. Shape into a log, cut in half or quarters to make pieces easier to work with.
  14. Roll each piece out into a rope, about 1 inch in diameter.
  15. Oil your scissors and cut into bite-size pieces.
  16. Wrap with waxed paper and store in an air-tight container.
Taffy being pulled and twisted:
Taffy being snipped into pieces:
Lots of little taffy candies:
Alton Brown's original recipe can be found here.