There are certain things in life that are synonymous with the time of year. Ice cream spells summer, chestnuts conjure up Christmas and toffee apples are Halloween and Bonfire Night! Making them at home is easy as (apple) pie!
Thebestof Bromley Borough have a great, simple recipe for you to follow that will have you enjoying delicious toffee apples in super quick time.
What you need:
The best way to begin is to prime your apples first with hot water to help the caramel stick to them better. To do this, place your apples in an appropriate bowl and cover with boiling water.
Get your lollipop stick and push it into the end of each apple.
Now to the cooker - warm your sugar over a medium heat in a pan with 100ml of boiling water.
After around 5 minutes your sugar will have dissolved - you now need to stir in your syrup and vinegar. The mixture needs to get to 140 degrees - you can either use a thermometer to do this, or if you don't have one available, test it yourself by pouring a small amount into a bowl of cold water. If it hardens instantly and is easily breakable that means it's ready, but if not, carry on boiling it until this happens.
Once the mixture is ready, add your food colouring and stir in.
Now for the assembly!
Dip each apple carefully into the caramel. You need to be quick as it sets quickly too! Don't worry if you find the caramel has thickened and is starting to set, you just need to heat it a little more.
Place them on parchment paper to set and once they do, you can enjoy the fruits of your not very hard labour!
Toffee apples are best eaten fresh but can be stored in an air tight container in a dry place for a couple of days... if they make it that long before being gobbled up!
And for those of you for whom toffee apples don't hold much appeal, you could always try a different version. Melt some chocolate for yummy chocolate apples!
Who cares if it's Halloween - let's face it, these sweet treats could be eaten all year round!
Image courtesy of Emilian Robert Vicol photostream on flickr.com.
