Homemade Peppermint Taffy

This basic recipe can be flavored with any kind of food-quality oil or extract and tinted with food coloring to identify the flavor.

Lightly butter a nonstick baking sheet. Spray a pair of kitchen scissors, a pair of rubber gloves, and an offset metal spatula with nonstick cooking spray.
In a medium saucepan fitted with a candy thermometer, bring the sugar, corn syrup, ¼ cup water, the butter, and salt to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly to help dissolve the sugar. Boil without stirring until the syrup reaches 270°F.
Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the peppermint oil to the syrup. Color the syrup with 2 or 3 drops of red food coloring. Swirl the syrup by the handle of the saucepan to incorporate the oil and coloring. Pour onto the prepared baking sheet.
Let the syrup cool until a skin begins to form on top, about 3 minutes. Put on the rubber gloves. Using the oiled spatula, continuously fold the syrup back on itself until it is cool enough to handle. Pick up the mass of syrup and pull the candy, stretching it between your hands and folding it back on itself, until it is opaque but still warm, about 3 minutes, depending on the heat of the kitchen.
Twist and pull the candy into a long rope about ¾ inch thick, letting the rope fall onto the baking sheet as it is pulled. Work quickly, as the candy hardens as it cools. Using the oiled scissors, snip the candy rope into ¾-inchlong candies. (If the candy cools until hard, crack the candy into pieces.) Cool completely.