I don’t know any princess stories, but I know a Slippery Weasel Story
He’d been deflecting our requests for a bedtime story for months, or so we thought. Finally, we called his bluff.
“Okay dad, tell us a – [insert snarky tone here] - Slippery Weasel story.”
What happened next lit a spark in me that still burns. The offer had not been an empty one. Beyond the princess stories there were other adventures to be had: bear encounters, seaside crab boils (in which the crabs had to be caught!), sixth grade heart breaks and haphazard driving lessons down old country lanes.
For years he regaled us with an unending supply of adventures and then – when I was eleven – the stories stopped.
The recordings he’d sent to me while receiving chemo were all I had, so played them. And I played them. And then I realized they were not just stories, these were his life, tucked away into the minds and hearts of two little girls who could not understand much more about what was going on.
It Was One Story In Particular . . .
That helped me put it all together. Young love in Iowa, a boy who had to go away to make a name for himself, racing in the Oklahoma land rush, and going back to take his bride to the frontier. Our family still has the land that was claimed on that day.
My dad was a slippery weasel indeed, and he’s left a legacy that I’m trying to figure out how to pass on. Long spoken narratives are not my style, but somehow working a batch of old-fashioned honey & cream taffy – which was a favorite in the frontier he taught us to love – helps unlock the words.
“Once upon a time in Iowa, there was a poor boy who loved a girl . . . “
Honey & Cream Taffy
Sweet and chewy with a hint of caramel, this hand-pulled taffy is as fun to make as it is to eat. For best results, share with someone you love along with a good story. ♥
Ingredients
- 1/2 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 cup cream, preferably grassfed
- 1 ½ cups honey
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
Equipment
- candy thermometer
- medium pot
- medium baking pan
Instructions
Note: These candies hold their shape for 1 day outside of the fridge. After that they soften and stretch out. They’re delicious that way, too, but if you want the pretty shape keep them in the fridge.
- Grease a medium-sized pan with butter and place in the refrigerator.
- In a medium-sized pot, combine cream and honey. The mixture will bubble up quite a bit so make sure there is a lot of room at the top, but you need the mixture to be deep enough to get a good reading with your candy thermometer.
- Cook over high heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes to a boil.
- Cook uncovered without stirring until a candy thermometer reads 280°.
- Remove from the heat and mix in the baking soda.
- Pour into your greased dish/baking pan, taking care not to scrape the sides of the pot. Now for the fun part!
Wait until it is cool enough to handle, then pick it up with buttered hands
. . . and stretch until the taffy becomes a bit lighter and firm ridges form when you pull.
Braid taffy into whatever design you like
. . . then trim with clean, buttered kitchen scissors.
Wrap individually in waxed paper and store in the fridge/freezer.
This recipe was inspired by this one at Taste of Home and this book.
about the author: Heather
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34 Responses to Honey And Cream Taffy Recipe
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I can’t tell if the recipe says 11 cups of honey (seems like a lot) or 1 cup..clarification please?
Oops! That should say 1 and 1/2. Correcting now! Thanks Schelli!
I wonder if you could make it dairy free with full fat Coconut milk(from the can not tetra pak like we drink) instead of cream and coconut oil or ghee instead of butter? Any thoughts?
Hi Heather! I’m not exactly sure. In my experience, the cream stabilizes the mixture and keeps it from burning – coconut milk/cream might have the same effect but I haven’t tested it. If you try it please let me know how it works for you!
The story about made me cry. I’ll have to try the taffy soon, too.
I sat down to write a post about the history of taffy pulls on the frontier, but that’s what came out instead! Hope you enjoy the taffy
It’s my Husband’s birthday Saturday and he LOVES anything caramel. this will be so fun!
YAY! I hope he likes it!
Do you think this would work with coconut milk?
I’m not exactly sure. In my experience, the cream stabilizes the mixture and keeps it from burning – coconut milk/cream might have the same effect but I haven’t tested it. If you try it please let me know how it works for you!
I love taffy and I know the combo of honey and cream will make my husband happy! He loves caramel, I love taffy…perfect dessert!
Can’t wait to try this and make it from scratch. Always seen the machines making it, but hand-pulled just has a better ring to it.
- Katie
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Can you tell me why you don’t scrape the sides? Thank you for sharing the recipe & the memories!
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That’s just what it said in the vintage cookbook I adapted this recipe from. I think it’s probably because they didn’t have thermometers (they used methods like dropping a piece in cold water to determine when it’s ready) to let them know when to pull it off the stove and so sometimes it got a little burned on the sides
Hi:
I don’t have a candy thermometer. Could I use a meat thermometer? If yes, any precautions I must take? I am desperate to make the taffy. So very delicious and pure. I have all the ingredients but the candy thermometer.
Thanks!
Hi Bonnie! I don’t know if a meat thermometer would work, sorry!
You have got to be kidding me! YUM!!
thank you for such a lovely post!…brought tears to my eyes and a longing to make great memories with the ones we love. My granny made this growing up on the farm and we’ve been meaning to make it since last summer by piecing together recipes I’d found online-now I don’t have to!
Those look amazing! I loved being told stories as a kid too. My parents would read to us more than tell their own stories, but it was definitely a favorite time.
Fantastic recipe! Could you recommend a good candy thermometer please?
280C or F?
Farenheit!
Is there anyway that you can add peanut butter to this to help it not be so sweet. Do you think that would work?
I don’t think so, Sally, but if you try it please let me know how it turns out!
Please, if you receive a positive review of this made with coconut milk/cream and coconut oil or ghee, please post!!! I have run into a lot of lovely ladies recently looking for dairy-free sweet treat recipes for their littles, and this one looks like a fun and tasty recipe!!! Thank you!!!
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I just made these with a 1 yr old crying at my knee and a 3 yr old playing hurricane in the kitchen….. that aside. WOW… so yummy and easy. My mission is to hide a few in the girls Easter basket…..if I can stop eating them. Thanks again!
Yay! So glad you like the recipe Leah!
[...] Honey and Cream Taffy with The [...]
I don’t know if you would know this, but since you research so much I thought of you to ask:) I really trust your site and appreciate all the research you put into everything. I was thinking about honey in recipes and was wondering if there is a honey that is okay to use besides raw in recipes using high heat. I figure the high heat of baking, or a recipe like this will kill all the enzymes in raw honey. But, I know many store bought brands of honey have been found to have undesirable ingredients. I was just wondering if there was a cheaper honey that would be able to be used in higher heat recipes that is still was a descent honey, if that makes sense? I don’t know if you have addressed this anywhere, but thought I would ask. These look wonderful! Oh, and congrats on baby #3!
Thank you, Lisa! I personally would be fine with using non-raw honey in a recipe like this, but as you said there are other potential issues with contamination. Because I trust local sources over big distributors I stick to what I can get at my farmer’s market. That’s not to say there isn’t a decent brand out there for cooking purposes – I just haven’t researched it!
I tried to make this but after the mixture cooling for quite a few hours now, it hasn’t got past the gooey stage. It just looks like one giant runny blob of honey! I’m guessing our ingredients Downunder have a slightly different composition.
So do you think it’d work to re-boil the mixture (with some modifications)? Or now that I’ve added the baking soda will it not work to re-boil it?
I’m so sorry you had trouble with it, Victoria! Did you have a candy thermometer on hand? I’m wondering if maybe the temp is measured differently (mine measures in Farenheit). Regarding rebatching, I’m honestly not sure. Please let me know how it goes if you try it!
Wonderful recipe!! Made it last night with my 3 year old, and he loved every minute of it. He woke up talking about it this morning. I have just one suggestion regarding the instructions: It may be helpful to have noted how long to expect the pulling to take, as well as a note that you will need to keep buttering your hands as you pull. The caramel seems to absorb the butter. I started the recipe with exactly the amount of butter listed in the ingredients list. It was all I had and I thought it would be enough. It wasn’t enough for an hour-long pull. But everything turned out okay. I ended up putting the soft taffy into the butter dish and then cutting it into cubes this morning. Yum! Thanks for the recipe!