Molasses pull taffy recipe is easy to follow and great fun to make with kids.

Molasses Pull Taffy Recipe

This molasses pull taffy recipe is easy to follow and great fun to make with kids.

Who doesn’t love an old-fashioned taffy pull?

As a kid, making this molasses pull taffy recipe was great fun. Slathering our hands with butter and pulling great gobs of soft taffy into glossy brittle strands was just about the ultimate in-kitchen fun.

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Molasses Pull Taffy

An old fashioned candy recipe that’s great fun to make with kids.

  • Author: Crosby Molasses

Ingredients

Scale
  • ½ cup Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 1 ½ Tbsp. vinegar
  • ½ cup water
  • ¼ tsp. cream of tartar
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 1/8 tsp. baking soda

Instructions

  1. In a heavy bottomed pot, combine molasses, sugar, vinegar and water. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring often, until mixture reaches 255 F (or when a small amount dropped in cold water turns hard).
  2. Remove from heat and add butter, cream of tartar and baking soda. Pour onto a buttered, sided cookie sheet.
  3. When cool enough to handle, pull pieces of taffy until light in color. (Butter hands before pulling).
  4. Twist and cut into 1” pieces. Wrap in parchment paper.

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Comments

  • October 28, 2022
    reply

    Gale

    My mom used to do this for us around St Catherine day. I remember the hot dark stuff in our hands that got lighter and lighter every pull. And buttering our hands was the only time our mom bought butter. Margarine ruled the rest of the year.

  • October 28, 2022
    reply

    Char

    This sounds so good ~ but I am confused! When I think of Taffy I think of more soft & chewy & this says brittle! Does this make more of a hard candy you suck on instead of chewing???

    • January 14, 2024
      reply

      Linda

      You let it warm up in your mouth and can start to chew after a while. It’s delicious. My Mom would make this for us as kids. Our job was to wrap the candy. If we dropped one on the floor we were allowed to eat it. We started the 5 second rule. We also dropped a lot of candy.

  • July 26, 2022
    reply

    Pauline pritchett

    This brought back alot of good memories way back when my mom was still around am 62 now & I can still remember making pull taffy and that she made hers with was Crosby molasses, when we get up Christmas morning our stocking would be full lol ,there was 10 kids in our family & everything would be handmade for our Christmas stocking stuffers thanks for sharing,good memories

  • October 30, 2020
    reply

    Gisele Lanthier

    I did the receipt this afternoon and I am glad I did the short one. May I ask you why The texture is not smooth? I followed the recepe exactly. Also, I find the taste of molasses is too much. I used white sugar and maybe it should have been brown sugar. This is less important but after pulling it for 15 minutes, it wouldn’t get lighter. What did I do wrong? Thank you for your help

    • April 8, 2021
      reply

      Crosby Molasses

      Hi Gisele, It’s tough to trouble shoot a candy recipe but I’ll try… I’m curious about the texture. Did the baking soda and cream of tartar not dissolve when you mixed it in? It should have become brittle after 15 min of pulling, even if it didn’t get much lighter. Can you confirm that you cooked it to 255 F?

  • October 29, 2020
    reply

    ben

    Looks iiiincredible. BTW, for some reason the Amazing race link isn’t showing up

    • April 8, 2021
      reply

      Crosby Molasses

      Thanks for the tip. Link is now repaired.

  • April 7, 2020
    reply

    Can,t wait to try this recipe.

  • December 7, 2017
    reply

    Linda

    When I was little my mom and dad would make this at Christmas time. My sister and I would get to pull the taffy. It was one of the best traditions we had. I loved to do it and I loved the taste of it.

    • December 13, 2017
      reply

      Lynn Purdy

      Linda, Isn’t it great how food can bring us such good memories. Try making some Pull Taffy for yourself and enjoy those memories even more. Happy Holidays

  • July 4, 2017
    reply

    Dean Kindle

    I tried this and it seemed to turn out really good. But the next day it was not chewy at all. It had turned brittle and crumbly. Any thoughts on what may have happened?

    • August 11, 2017
      reply

      Hi Dean, I find that pull taffy can be finicky, depending on the weather. This recipe almost always works perfectly for me, but I had one batch last fall that went strange the next day. I chalked it up to the weather (it was humid).

    • January 21, 2018
      reply

      Julia

      You probably heated it too much. The hotter you cook candy the harder and more brittle it will be once it cools.

    • January 20, 2019
      reply

      Celia B.

      I have found when making taffy and caramels that they will stay chewy if I immediately wrap them individually in waxed paper or Saran, store in an airtight container, and keep in the freezer. You have to work quickly, because even the moisture from your hands can contribute to their “going to sugar,” which is what my mom and grandma used to call it when a chewy candy turned to crumbly due to humidity. Best way is to try to make on days when humidity is low, such as on a cold day when the heat is on and the indoor air is dry.

      • January 22, 2019
        reply

        Crosby Molasses

        Thanks Celia, that is such a helpful suggestion, especially storing the taffy in the freezer.

  • November 16, 2016
    reply

    LPV

    I love making molasses taffy. This was something I did with my children during winter storms.
    It brings back lots of memories as well as I came from a large family and we often made it as a treat. There’s something about the buttery feel of warm taffy in your hands.
    My mom told the story of when they made it as children and the pot would be placed in the snow to cool before pulling.
    Definitely something I will make as a winter treat. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

  • September 8, 2016
    reply

    Thank you?.

  • September 8, 2016
    reply

    I am thrilled to see and have this recipe…..I grew up in Corner Brook, NFLDL, and that was our weekly treat, to make with our parents. There were 6 of us, that pulled the taffy. What a great time, as a family, we would have. ✍
    That was our Recess treat, for School along with Apples.
    This is the best, lots of Iron, magnesium, Potassium, and much more body values.
    I always keep Crosby Molasses on my shelf. ?
    Many thanks for this info on Candy.
    Alma Brown……..?

    • September 20, 2016
      reply

      Thanks Alma, I have great memories of pull taffy too. Someday soon I’ll add a video to this post that shows my kids pulling the taffy.

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