Although projects like taffy-making involve high temperatures and require adult supervision, kids still get the opportunity to do the fun part – pulling taffy. Adults cook the taffy and call kids in after the mixture has cooled. If you want colorful taffy, put in a few drops of food coloring while cooking the mixture.
Taffy Pull – Things for Children to Make
You will need
- 1 cup of granulated sugar
- ¼ cup of water
- 2 tablespoons of white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- The recipe also requires the following equipment: a deep pot, wood mixing spoons, a candy thermometer, a plate, and kitchen shears. To wrap the pieces of taffy you’ll also want waxed paper.
Make Candy
Caution: An adult should complete this beginning step. Boiling sugar can cause severe burns, so explain to children that they can’t hover around the stove at this stage. You know your children and their behavior best.
- Combine the sugar, water, and vinegar in the deep pot. Clip the candy thermometer to the side of the pot. Boil to 265 degrees Fahrenheit (130 degrees Celsius) or to the hard-ball stage. The hard-ball stage is when a drop of the mixture forms a ball in a glass of cold water.
- Add the butter and vanilla. Butter the plate. Pour the mixture onto the plate so it can cool.
- The adult should determine when the candy mixture is cooled. Warning: the interior can be hot enough to burn skin even if the exterior is cool. This can take a while.
- Have kids butter their hands and work the mixture into a ball.
- Kids twist off a small piece and follow the taffy pulling movements of pull, fold in half, and then twist. Repeat many times until the taffy becomes a creamy color that is difficult to pull. Their goal is to work air into the mixture.
- Pull the taffy into a thin, ½” thick rope. The adult can then use kitchen shears cut the rope into bite-sized pieces. Remember, taffy is chewy and no one wants too big a bite in their mouth that will be difficult to enjoy. Wrap the pieces in small squares of waxed paper and twist each end so you trap the candy in the wrapper.
Fun Science Fact for Kids
Taffy is a colloid or solid foam. Air, a gas, gets trapped in this recipe’s sugar (a solid). That’s the fun part of making taffy, working the taffy light and soft. According to Jill Frankel Hauser in Super Science Concoctions (Williamson Publishing, 1997), “Colloids can be made from any form of matter floating in another.”
For example, gels are liquids floating in solids. Aerosols are liquids floating in a gas. Foams are a gas floating in liquid. Emulsions are a liquid floating in another liquid.
After wrapping up a batch of taffy kids can then set some of the candy in a jar and give this as a handmade gift. Kids can decorate a label, such as “Taffy Handmade by ___ on (date)” and draw pictures of candy. Add a ribbon around the cover of the jar and present.
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