Homemade Taffy is easy to make and gets the kids involved. Welcome to our Sweet Shoppe! If you are alarmed by red dye, excessive amounts of sugar and underage workers turn away now!

Two children making homemade taffy. One is cutting the pieces and one is wrapping. -Skip To My Lou
Engage your kids with this fun Homemade Taffy Recipe

If not, stick around and see how we made loads of homemade taffy!

Related: What kid would not want to make this? How To Make Gummy Candy

Kids love to be involved! They will have a great experience with this hands-on recipe.

Homemade red taffy wrapped in wax paper. -Skip To My Lou

Homemade Taffy Ingredients

2 1/2 cups white sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup light corn syrup

1 1/3 cups water

2 tablespoons butter (plus lots extra to butter hands, we probably used over 1/2 of a stick of butter on our hands)

1 teaspoon salt

1 – .21oz (6g) package of unsweetened, fruit-flavored drink mix (like Kool-Aid) (we used cherry)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Steps for making the Homemade Taffy

  • Butter a large jelly roll pan or a cookie sheet with sides really well.
  • In a medium saucepan, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. 
  • Add corn syrup, water, butter, and salt and stir well until butter is melted.
  • Bring to a boil over medium heat and stop stirring. Cook the mixture until the candy thermometer read 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). This takes some time to get it to 250 degrees. Once the temperature approaches 250 degrees, watch very closely because it cooks quickly at the end. 
  • Immediately remove from heat.
  • Carefully stir in vanilla and drink mix.
  • Stir well. We should have stirred ours more– notice some bits of drink mix (dark spots) on our taffy.
  • Pour mixture onto a buttered baking pan.
  • Allow it to cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes.

Directions For Pulling The Taffy

  • Once the taffy has cooled enough to handle, butter hands and begin pulling. (It starts kind of translucent)
Two children pulling the homemade taffy with buttered hands. -Skip To My Lou
  • Then pull…and pull…butter hands again…pull…
Two children stretching the homemade taffy. -Skip To My Lou
  • and stretch…pull…more hand buttering…pull…
Two children stretching the homemade taffy. -Skip To My Lou
  • It will become more opaque and lighten in color depending on the attention span of your workers!
  • This takes about 10-15 minutes of pulling.
One child holding the batch of red taffy. -Skip To My Lou
  • Pull into long ropes and cut with buttered scissors.
A child using buttered scissors to cut the red homemade taffy. -Skip To My Lou
  • and cut!
Ropes of homemade taffy and cut pieces laying on wax paper. -Skip To My Lou
  • Wrap pieces of taffy in pieces of waxed paper
A child using wax paper to wrap a piece of the homemade taffy. -Skip To My Lou
  • and give it a good twist on each end.
A child using wax paper to wrap a piece of the homemade taffy and twisting the ends. -Skip To My Lou
  • Finished!
A grouping of the red homemade taffy wrapped in wax paper. -Skip To my Lou

Sweet!!

Two children smiling as they look at the camera with the pulled red taffy and cut pieces. -Skip To My Lou
HomemadeTaffy1a.jpg

Homemade Taffy Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Cooling and Pulling Time 30 minutes
Print Recipe

Ingredients  

  • 2 1/2 cups white sugar
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 cup light corn syrup
  • 1 1/3 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons butter plus lots extra to butter hands, we probably used over 1/2 of a stick of butter on our hands
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 package unsweetened, fruit-flavored drink mix (like Kool-Aid) (We used Cherry)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions 

  • Butter a large jelly roll pan or a cookie sheet with sides really well.
  • In a medium saucepan, stir together the sugar and cornstarch.
  • Add corn syrup, water, butter, and salt and stir well until butter is melted.
  • Bring to a boil over medium heat and stop stirring. Cook the mixture until the candy thermometer read 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). This takes some time to get it to 250 degrees. Once the temperature approaches 250 degrees, watch very closely because it cooks quickly at the end.
  • Immediately remove from heat.
  • Carefully stir in vanilla and drink mix.
  • Stir well. We should have stirred ours more– notice some bits of drink mix (dark spots) on our taffy.
  • Pour mixture onto a buttered baking pan.
  • Allow it to cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes.
  • Once the taffy has cooled enough to handle, butter hands, and begin pulling. (It starts kind of translucent)
  • Then pull…and pull…butter hands again…pull… and stretch…pull…more hand buttering…pull…
  • It will become opaquer and lighten in color.
  • This takes about 10-15 minutes of pulling.
  • Pull into long ropes and cut with buttered scissors.
  • Wrap pieces of taffy in pieces of waxed paper and give it a good twist on each end.

Nutrition

Calories: 89kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 0.01g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.02g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Trans Fat: 0.03g | Cholesterol: 2mg | Sodium: 76mg | Potassium: 1mg | Fiber: 0.01g | Sugar: 21g | Vitamin A: 19IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 2mg | Iron: 0.01mg
Servings: 36
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Author: Cindy Hopper

More Sweet desserts

Are you laughing as you make your taffy?

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Comments

  3. This is beyond adorable! I just love the idea and the images of your children are so precious. Thank you for sharing. I foresee some pink and purple taffy in my immediate future.

  5. This is a wonderful idea!
    Do you have any suggestions for an alternative to using corn syrup? perhaps honey or agave?

  7. How fun does that look?! I’m definitely going to have to try this one with my kiddos. Thanks, Cindy!

  8. Cool! I remember my aunts making this when I was little, and it’s a very fond memory. I’ll have to make it with my kiddos when they’re a bit older.

  9. oooo…my teeth hurt just looking at the chewy deliciousness! This may be an awesome way for me to bribe my kids to clean their rooms…hmm 😉 Hugs, Ingrid

  10. Looks like so much fun!
    I haven’t made taffy since first grade and I recall us stretching it the length of the classroom 🙂
    The red looks so pretty!

  12. I’ve wanted to make some homemade taffy for a while now and just haven’t. Thanks for the great recipe and tutorial. I am going to have to try this out soon. 🙂

  15. wow, this looks like fun! Can’t wait to do this with my son….but he’s only 10 months now! Maybe we can somewhat and it would be a good texture game hehe…

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