Good afternoon ya'll. It is a cool and blustery winter day here in South Georgia but the sun is shining and all is right with the world. I have 2 loaves of bread baking in the oven and one is cinnamon raisin which smells so good. It will taste great with a fresh cup of coffee in just a little while. Why don't ya'll come on over and sit a spell and we'll have some together.
As I was making bread I remembered a fun activity we used to do at home when it was cold and we couldn't get outside to play. Mama would get out the syrup and we would make molasses pull candy. Daddy didn't make syrup but we could usually buy it from a farmer or mama would use Brer Rabbit syrup for it is the closest thing to homemade we could find.
She would make the candy, put it out in a big cookie sheet to cool and we would stand anxiously by waiting for it to cool so we could start pulling. We would butter our fingers and shift from foot to foot, touching it gingerly with a finger and sometimes getting too anxious and get a burned finger. Finally the time would come and mama would butter a butcher knife, cut it into lengths and we would begin to pull. You have to pull it until it becomes a taffy color and is no longer sticky or rather too sticky for until it cools completely it is sticky. We would put it on another cookie sheet and let it cool, turn hard and then lick, eat and become sticky ourselves from all the goodness.
It seems that all of our friends would know when we were pulling taffy for they would just show up but it was even more fun if you have a bunch to pull for then you can partner with someone and pull a bigger piece. You have to get it pulled before it gets cool so help was always needed. Mama would fix some hot chocolate, from scratch of course, and we would eat candy, drink hot chocolate and have a great time.
The kitchen at our home was always the gathering place for us and our friends and it was always warmed by mama's good cooking, warm hospitality and welcome for all who knocked on the door. I have put some links to the recipes for this candy and the picture is typical of my childhood. Enjoy
Nuff said,
The Georgia Peach
http://www.mtnlaurel.com/default.htm
http://www.mtnlaurel.com/Recipes/taffy.htm
http://recipes.recipeland.com/recipes/recipe/show/Molasses_Candy_Old-Fashioned_Pull_Taffy_6654
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