Eat: Gooey Goo (ish)

So in my list of Seuss-inspired snacks, I told you that I was going to show you how to make Gooey Goo (salt water taffy) as found in Fox in Socks.

Well, that was apparently an ambitious thing to say. Lesson learned: actually do the thing you want to do before you tell people you are going to post about it.

So….I made “taffy” twice yesterday, and I’m sorry to say that neither of them actually turned out to be soft, chewy taffy. But I was able to make some nice hard candy. And, through my experiences, I can now tell you what not to do.

So, I followed the recipe found here. (You are going to see pictures of both of my experiments, so don’t mind the change in pots)

I put all the ingredients in the pot and bring to a boil. I didn’t have glycerin, but it said that it was optional, so I didn’t worry about it. Then after checking out this blog, I think glycerin would have been a smart choice. This was my first problem.

Then don’t stir it or touch it, except to wash down the sides of the pot with some warm water using a pastry brush.

Let it get to 270 degrees F. I think this was my second problem. According to this blog, who incidentally tried to make taffy several times before finding the right combination of ingredients and temperature, says that you should go for 265 degrees F. So I say go for the lower temperature. Maybe even going a little under that, like 260, but I cannot personally vouch for that.

Then mix in your coloring and your flavoring.

Then pour it on a greased cookie sheet to cool. The first time I did this, I think I let it cool too much before I started to try to put it. It was just a big sheet of hard candy by that time. So, you could call that my third problem.

So don’t wait too long, and butter up your hands.

And carefully start folding it in to itself, forming a log, and folding that in half. It will still be pretty warm, but it’s doable.

The “taffy” will start getting lighter in color due to the air that you are working into the sugar.

When it’s a little above room temperature cut it into pieces. I think scissors would be best, but I had a knife handy, so that’s what I used.

My second finished product was not taffy, but it was some really pretty hard candy, kinda like a lollipop. So while it was not Gooey Goo, it was still a fun experiment. I will definitely have to revisit this again, and then I will share all my secrets.

But for now, you’ll just have to settle for my Granitic Goo.

Now, make me feel better. 🙂 What failures have you had in the kitchen?