Recipe: Toffee Apples

Recipe: Toffee Apples

Body Content

Make sure you eat them the day you make them when they are at their crunchiest.

Notes: Although children love a toffee apple, this is one for the grown-ups to make as you really don’t want anyone getting hot sugar burns. Make sure you wash the apples well first or the toffee will not stick due to wax on the apple skin.

Ingredients

500g White Sugar
125g Butter
2 Tbsp Hot Water
2 Tbsp White Wine Vinegar
1/2 tsp Red Gel Food Colour

To de-wax your apples
A bowl of very hot water
1 Tbsp Bicarbonate of soda
1 Tbsp Lemon juice

Method

1 Place the bicarb, hot water and lemon in a large bowl and soak your apples for 2 minutes, then wash well and dry thoroughly
2 Stick a barbecue skewer or a well-washed sturdy stick into the stalk end of each apple
3 Mix the sugar, butter, vinegar and boiling water in a heavy bottomed pan and warm over a low heat
4 Heat slowly, stirring regularly until there are no sugar grains, this takes a good 15 minutes
5 Add the food colour and stir well
6 Turn up the heat and boil for 8-10 minutes until the toffee reaches 146º-154ºC. Do not stir whilst the toffee is bubbling, although you can swirl the pan a little if you can’t resist
7 You can test the temperature with a jam or probe thermometer, or drop a blob into cold water and if it solidifies into brittle strands it is ready. Don’t heat too long or you will have burnt tasting bonfire toffee!
8 Remove from the heat and stir gently until the bubbles disappear
9 Dip and swirl your apple into the mixture, allowing excess toffee to run off then stand them on greaseproof paper/parchment
10 Pour any excess toffee onto a sheet of paper for nibbling at later