Ingredients

• 8 apples of your choice (sour, tarty without wax coating are best)
• 2 cups white sugar
• ½ cup of tap water
• ½ tsp red colouring
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 6 x thick skewers or candy apple sticks
• Parchment paper or silicon mat

Steps

• Step 1

  Give the apple a dry wipe using paper towel or very clean cloth. Remove stems and prick using the skewers. Insert three quarters of the way so it has a firm grip. You don’t want it falling off splashing in the hot toffee.

• Step 2

  In a clean preferably stainless steel saucepan (do not use non stick) add the sugar, water, vinegar and red colouring. Be careful not to splash the sides, you want to keep them clean. Turn on heat to medium, mix well with a clean stainless utensil, stop mixing once it boils. Leave to reduce until the sugar reaches the hard crack stage. Best to use a cooking/sugar thermometer for this. If you don’t have one, see tips below.

• Step 3

  Once the temperature reaches 300°F – 150°C, turn off the heat immediately. Be very careful as the sugar toffee will be very hot, and splashes will result in severe burns.
  You need to work fast, simply tilt the saucepan on an angle and holding the apples by the stick, dip them in the toffee as you rotate them. Let them drip the bulk off, then place on parchment paper to cool down and harden.

Little Tips

Some apples have a wax coating, so I usually buy organic, but you can remove the wax by standing them in water that just boiled for no more than 10 seconds. Then wipe the apples clean with paper towels and leave them to dry overnight on a cooling rack.

If you don't have a kitchen thermometer, you can still check the hard crack stage of your sugar syrup in the following way. Use a very clean teaspoon and remove a small amount of the syrup, then place directly in a bowl of cold water. Leave to cool a short moment, then pick it up and roll it into a ball. If it's soft, then it's not quite ready, if it's hard turn off the heat.

Once starting to coat the apples, you need to work quickly as the sugar syrup will turn into thick toffee. You want to achieve a thin coat so no one breaks their teeth. You can also turn on the heat to super low to keep it runny. Happy Halloween or enjoy it at anytime.