Frugal Fall Fun and Food – Taffy Pull

Instead of going trick or treating when I was growing up, we used to have a fall party at home.  After sharing some of the fun things we used to do with my kids, they wanted to try some of the food and fun things themselves.  This week, I’ve decided to post Monday through Friday, each day sharing one of the fun ideas with you.
Our first Frugal Fall Fun and Food activity included both food and fun….oh, and it was frugal and we did it in the Fall.  ANYwhooo,  We had a Family Taffy Pull.

I’ve been wanting to try this for many years and now that my kids are getting a little older, I knew we would have plenty strong muscles to make this work.
Here’s the recipe I used:
Saltwater Taffy
2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
1/4 teaspoon flavoring
(let me say that we used way more then 1/4 teaspoon of flavoring.  We divided our taffy into 4 different flavors and used probably 1/2 teaspoon of flavoring in each to get a nice bold flavor)
1 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Butter a 15x10x1 inch baking pan; set aside.  Butter the sides of a heavy 2 quart saucepan.  In saucepan combine sugar, corn syrup, water, and salt.  Cook and stir over medium-high heat to boiling.  Clip candy thermometer to side of pan.  Cook over medium heat, without stirring, to 265 degrees (this took almost 40 minutes to get to this temperature).  Remove saucepan from heat.  Stir in margarine.  Stir in flavoring and coloring, if desired.

Pour into prepared pan.  Cool for 15-20 minutes or till easy to handle.

Butter hands; divide candy into four pieces.  Twist and pull each piece till it turns a creamy color (about 10 minutes).

Candy is ready if it cracks when tapped on counter.

With buttered scissors, snip taffy into bite-size pieces. (do this quickly as the taffy gets hard…fast)  Wrap in clear plastic wrap.  (This is very necessary…we didn’t do this and our taffy started sticking together.)

**This is not the soft, chewy taffy you get at the grocery or at the ocean.  It is more of a taffy that you suck on for a while.  It was really tasty though and we had fun and made memories doing it.  Don’t forget to stop back tomorrow to see more Frugal Fall Fun and Food.