Is there salt water in saltwater taffy?

Actually, no. There is salt—and water—in saltwater taffy. But it isn’t made with ocean water, despite the fact that it’s so widely available at seaside vacation spots.

So how did saltwater taffy come to be? One story holds that a seaside candy store was flooded by a storm and the resulting saltwater-logged taffy was discovered to be delicious. However, this story is probably apocryphal.

Why do you pull taffy?

The final important step in making taffy is pulling it: Stretching it out and folding it in half, then stretching and folding again, over and over, until you may reach the point of exhaustion.

Good exercise—but what does it do for the candy? As it turns out, pulling taffy aerates it, or incorporates many tiny air bubbles throughout the candy. This makes it lighter and chewier.

Taffy isn’t the only candy out there that gets pulled this way. We saw molten lollipop pulled by a machine at a local lollipop factory. In this case, the air bubbles added by pulling were to make the candy less rock hard and more brittle.

Salt Water Taffy Recipe

Saltwater taffy is a candy and an upper-body workout all in one. To give it its light but chewy texture, you’ll be pulling it, and pulling it, and pulling it for up to 15 minutes.

Makes about 50 1-inch pieces.

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons glycerin (optional)
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 to 1 teaspoon flavoring (such as vanilla, lemon, maple, or mint)
• 3 drops food coloring (optional)

• a large (3- to 4-quart) saucepan
• a wooden spoon
• a candy thermometer
• a pastry brush
• waxed paper or plastic wrap
• a marble slab or cookie sheet
• greased scissors or butter knife

What Do I Do?

1. Mix together sugar and cornstarch in the saucepan.

2. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the corn syrup, glycerin, water, butter, and salt. Place the saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.

3. Continue stirring until mixture begins to boil, then let cook, undisturbed, until it reaches about 270° F or the soft-crack stage. Wash down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in warm water while the syrup cooks.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and add food coloring and flavoring. Stir gently, then pour onto a greased marble slab or into a shallow greased cookie sheet to cool.

4. When the taffy is cool enough to handle, grease your hands with oil or butter and pull the taffy until it's light in color and has a satiny gloss. You can have a friend help with this step, which should take about 10 minutes.

5. Roll the pulled taffy into a long rope, about 1/2 inch in diameter, and cut it with greased scissors or a butter knife into 1-inch-long pieces. Let the pieces sit for about half an hour before wrapping them in wax paper or plastic wrap and twisting the ends of the wrapper.



What Else Can I Try?

• Try leaving out the corn syrup and see what happens! When we tried this, we ended up with a crystallized candy with a melt-in-your-mouth texture very similar to after-dinner mints.

• Try not pulling some of the taffy—what is the texture of the resulting candy?

• Try adding 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda before pouring out the syrup. This will create many tiny bubbles that should result in a lighter, chewier texture.

• Try twisting together taffy ropes of different colors or flavors for fun new combinations.