Too Cute Tuesday is a weekly event involving a craft, a cocktail, and friends. To learn more check us out on Facebook or see the TCT posts at www.toocutetuesday.com.
This past Sunday was Maine Maple Sunday and while sap production is lower this year than was expected (something to do with the relatively warmer weather we’ve been having), we are not letting that get us down at Too Cute Tuesday!
We decided to make maple flavored salt water taffy because it was easy and it involved sugar, two factors we often consider with crafting.
Ingredients:
2 cups white granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter
1-1/2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon flavored oil
7 drops food coloring
maple syrup or other flavoring
food coloring (optional- we didn’t use it)
food coloring (optional- we didn’t use it)
candy thermometer
sauce pan
cookie sheet
plastic wrap or wax paper
scissors
extra butter
sauce pan
cookie sheet
plastic wrap or wax paper
scissors
extra butter
Cocktail of the Night: Triple Phat Limeaid (two parts lime juice, 1 oz citrus vodka, 1 oz cognac, 1 oz orange liqueur. Shake and pour.)
If you need more detailed directions, check out eHow. Otherwise, we’ll take you through our process below:
1. Gather sugar, syrup, salt, and water. Dump in saucepan. Heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Heat mixture slowly to 260ish degrees F. (Mental note: You might want to actually get a candy thermometer to do this. Ours only went up to 220. D’oh!) Candy will be at the hard ball stage, which means you can put a bit of mixture in a cup of cold water and it makes , you guessed it, a hard ball. Stir in maple syrup (or any flavor and coloring you are using).
2. Pour mixture on buttered cookie sheet to cool. Make cocktails and dish about the nearby earthquake while waiting mixture to cool.
3. Butter your hands, you’ll be glad you did this in a second. Form ball from the mixture. Pull and fold. Pull and fold. Add butter to hands as necessary, or unnecessary, you know, because buttery hands are fun. When the taffy becomes lighter colored and harder to pull, separate into a few sections and hand them to your friends who have also buttered their hands.
4. Pull and fold. Pull and fold. Have Christie propose that we have ‘pull it’ month, a whole month of pull-related crafts. Interesting idea, Christie, but please tell me this to me when my hands are not covered in butter so I can write it down.
5. Stretch candy into sections approximately 1/2 inch wide. Butter scissors and cut candy off into little pieces. Resist the temptation to put these immediately in your mouth. One of members practically accidentally welded her jaw shut. Wrap pieces in plastic wrap or wax paper. Make your friends who have jobs outside the house take them to give out at their workplaces, if only because you shouldn’t ever consume that much corn syrup.
This recipe makes a ridiculous amount of candy so be warned!
Aren’t you buttery, and crafty?