Created on June 26th, 2011
Place all ingredients except the vanilla and butter into a heavy saucepan. You can find glycerin at most pharmacies. It is a very important ingredient. The taffy will not turn out well without it.
Bring your taffy to a boil over medium-high heat. Let it keep boiling until your candy thermometer reaches 258 degrees. This should take about 35-40 minutes.
I like to check the temperature of the taffy by dipping a spoon into the pan and then running cold water from the tap over it. See how the taffy is kind of stiff looking? That means it is ready to go. If you cook it much past this stage, it will be really hard when you pull it. If you undercook it, you may have a sticky mess. This water trick really helps. However, you can rely on your candy thermometer as well.
When your taffy is cooked, take it off the heat and pour in your vanilla.
Add your butter to the pot and give the bubbling beauty a good round of stirring. Stir until the butter is all melted.
Butter a large cookie sheet.
Pour the taffy onto the sheet.
Let the taffy cool for about 5 minutes, or until it is cool enough to handle. The edges will start to set up a bit faster than the middle.
Pinch the taffy into 12 separate pieces.
When the taffy is cool enough to pick up, hand out a piece to each lucky participant. Then you can start to pull the taffy. The trick is to stretch it out... and then fold it back together. Stretch and fold, stretch and fold... until your taffy turns a beautiful white color. Or if some of your pullers are 3 years old, until they get tired of pulling. It still tastes mighty good, even if you don't pull it long enough for it to turn white.
Stretch the taffy into a long rope shape and set it on a piece of wax paper. You can break the taffy into pieces by holding it in the palm of your hand and tapping it with the handle of a butter knife (thanks for the tip, Grandma Barb!).