Molasses Taffy from French Island, Maine

From a recipe book, “Nos Histoires de l’Ile, livre de cuisine, A Collection of Recipes from French Island in Old Town, Maine”. Many French-Canadian families came to Old Town from Quebec beginning in the 1890’s to work in the logging industry and paper mills there .

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 1 1/4 pounds

Prep Time: until pulled enough! Cook Time: probably 10 min. or so

Ingredients

butter for greasing the pan
2 cups sugar
1 cup molasses
1/3 cup water
2 teas. vinegar
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 teas. baking soda

Directions

Butter sides of a heavy 3-quart saucepan. In it, mix sugar, molasses and water. Heat slowly, stirring constantly, until boiling. Stir in vinegar, cook to soft crack stage (270 degrees). Remove from heat. Add 2 tablespoons butter, sprinkle in soda and mix. Pour into buttered 15x10x1 pan. Cool until easy to handle. Butter hands, gather taffy into a ball. PULL and PULL. When golden and hard to pull, cut in fourths. Pull each of the pieces into strands about 1/2 inch thick. With buttered scissors, snip into bite size pieces. Wrap in waxed paper. Makes 1 1/4 pounds.

Categories: Candy, Old-Fashioned

Tags: candy