I cant help myself, although I don’t add sugar to tea, or cereal and don’t really go for sweets toffee apples are something I just adore. If the idea of getting into them scares you then cut the apple into wedges and make mini versions, much kinder to your front teeth!
This is a simple and relatively quick recipe, make on the day you will use them, but you can cut your twigs and wash your apples the day before to make it quicker on the day.
INGREDIENTS:
100ml Water
400ml Golden Granulated Sugar
1 teaspoon vinegar
4 tablespoons Golden Syrup
12 apples
12 Twigs
Have a clean baking tray ready in the fridge, with a piece of baking parchment if you like.
Cut 12 twigs (and a few spares) about 1/4″ diameter – I like hazel, beech both lovely shiny browns clearly be careful not to use anything poisonous. About 7 or 8″ long – you can always cut them down when you have made the apples, but small children do better with even shorter sticks – gives them more control!
Take 12 apples – if they are home grown wash and polish, if they are shop bought dip each apple one at a time in boiling water for a moment and then polish off the wax that will turn white and be visible (ewww). Pick off the bud ends and twist off the stalks, carefully push a twig into each apple at the stalk end and put to one side.
Put 100ml water and 400gms of golden caster sugar into a medium/large sized saucepan and dissolve the sugar slowly – this is important. When it is dissolved add 4 tablespoons of Golden Syrup and 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Bring gently to a rapid boil for 15 minutes, DO NOT STIR.
You will notice it thickens considerably and at 15 minutes you should now test the toffee. It should now be at ‘hard crack’ temperature 150 degrees celsius if you are using a jam thermometer. You don’t need a thermometer to tell, just follow the test below.
Take a glass of cold water, with a teaspoon take a small quantity of the toffee and pour off the spoon into the water, fish it out, if it snaps your ready to go, if its chewy (as i know it will be in your mouth by now) then wait and retest. When ready turn off heat.
Ensure you have no children or pets in the kitchen, its very hot sticky stuff and you need to work with no distractions. Don’t rush, but you can’t hang about or be distracted.
Bring your toffee to the work surface, with the apples and your refrigerated baking sheet – take your first apple, tilt the pan and twist the apple in the toffee, hold it above the pan and allow it to drip well, then place on baking sheet. Repeat till all done. If you have some over, pour it onto a flat tin and use it as a crumbly topping on ice-cream another day.
Apples will be ready to use in an hour or less, they will be good all day – they wont last till the next day as they will all be eaten! DO NOT refrigerate, they will go soggy.
Once hard, I like to arrange them on a bed of autumn leaves to serve, again look for nice reds and golds, nothing poisonous, wash and dry if you like in advance…so pretty! So tasty! 🙂