Honey Taffy
Serves ~50 pieces Time 1+ hours Difficulty 2/5 Ingredients 6 Steps 7
This recipe entails a good workout with the reward of unmistakably honey-flavored candies. This recipe can be completed by a single chef, but is much more fun with the help of friends and family.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (450 g / 16 oz) white granulated sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 cup (325 g / 11.5 oz) liquid honey (any variety)
- ¾ cup (185 ml / 6.3 oz) water
- 2 tablespoons butter
Steps
- Combine sugar, salt and cornstarch until uniform in 3–4-quart (2.8–3.8 L) heavy-bottomed saucepan.
- Stir in honey and water with wooden or metal spoon. Place over medium-high heat. Stir continually until sugar dissolves.
- Stir until mixture begins to boil. Then cook undisturbed to 270°F/132°C, soft crack stage. Add butter.
- Remove from heat. Pour onto greased, lipped cookie sheet, greased marble slab or silicone mat.
- When cool enough to handle, with greased clean hands, gather taffy. Stretch, fold and recombine continuously, 10–15 minutes, until lighter in color with satiny gloss.
- Roll into ½-inch ropes. Cut into 1 in pieces with knife or greased scissors.
- Wrap pieces in small squares of waxed paper. Twist ends.
Notes from the original
- Be extremely careful around the boiling syrup, as it gets extremely hot and sticks like tar.
- Use a wooden or metal spoon for this recipe, as most plastic spoons will melt or deform. A wooden spoon is best because a metal spoon will get very hot in the sugar syrup.
- You can add extra flavoring or coloring to the taffy if you mix it in at the same time as the butter.
- If you don’t like honey, or don’t want to use a lot of it, you can substitute corn syrup for equal parts of the missing honey.
- If you want some extra reward for extra effort, try making two batches with different colors and/or flavors at once, and twisting or braiding the taffy ropes before cutting to make interesting combinations.
- If you don't have cornstarch, you can use 1 tsp of vinegar instead to help prevent recrystallization.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Honey Taffy” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-07-13, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.