Anyone familiar with Cream Pulled Candy? It's a traditional Appalachian (Kentucky) candy where sugar and water are cooked to the soft ball stage, then milk, butter or cream and a small amount of baking soda are added and the mixture cooked on to the hard ball stage. It is then poured onto buttered marble, a small amount of vanilla is sprinkled over and the mixture cooled until cool enough to handle, then pulled taffy fashion until light in color and very stiff. It is cut into small pieces with scissors. At this stage it is still very much like taffy (chewy and elastic), but normally after a period of time it transforms into a soft, chalk-like consistency (think of butter mints) with a hint of caramel (caused be the effect of the baking soda on the milk or cream added) and vanilla flavor.
My problem lately is that my candy is failing to cream; rather it remains hard but chewy like taffy rather than undergoing the creaming process. Any idea what could be going wrong? I haven't changed ingredients (cane sugar only) or the pot or cooking method either. Any clue what's happening (or not happening)
Best Answer
I found a few discussions online in which multiple people say this sort of candy won't form properly (will stay taffylike) if the weather isn't cold and dry. Could that be the problem?
This article suggests pulling the candy in front of a fridge if it isn't cold out. Maybe worth a try.