Toffee Apples

I love this time of year, not just because I love Autumn,  but also because there is so much to look forward to, Halloween, Bonfire Night, Christmas, all great excuses to bake lots of lovely goodies to eat and even better, lots of fun with the kids.

My lot may all be grown up now, but we all love Halloween and yesterday was Luca’s Birthday, a perfect excuse to have some Halloween themed fun.

We started the day in the usual way with presents and cards, but then things took a spooky twist when we went to Priory Farm where we did the fantastic Halloween walk, with ghost’s, witches, blood and bats, what more could you ask for. We made Halloween masks, toffee apples and enjoyed Luca’s massive birthday cake that I will be blogging about very soon, all in all a wonderful day.

The toffee apples were heavenly, they tasted like buttered toffee, Rosie & I were in heaven. They are very simple to make, would make lovely gifts wrapped in cellophane and tied with a ribbon, but one word of warning, the syrup is like molten lava and as Hubby would say “hot as the centre of the earth”, so please be careful when dipping your apples.

Buon appetito
(Top photo taken at Priory Farm, Nutfield – Luca, Olly, Rosie & Max)

225 g Demerara sugar
110 ml water
0.5 tsp vinegar
2 tbsp golden syrup
25 g butter
6 apples
6 wooden skewers, for holding the apples

Dissolve the sugar in the water over a moderate heat. When it has dissolved, stir in the vinegar, syrup and butter. Bring to a boil and cook without stirring until it reaches hard-crack stage (138C) or hardens into a ball when dropped in a jug of cold water. This should take around 10 minutes boiling time.

While the syrup is cooking, pierce each apple with a wooden stick. Once the toffee is ready, dip each apple into the hot toffee, turning it around in the syrup so that each one is fully coated.

Leave to harden on a lightly oiled tray before serving. If you’re planning to keep them for a day or two, wrap the apples in cellophane.

Now I left mine a natural colour, but if you fancy them red like they are in the shops, just add some food colouring. Any colour, green would be great, black for Halloween would also be fun.

Or if you don’t fancy toffee, how about dipping them in melted chocolate, you could decorate them with smarties, sprinkles or for a more grown up theme for a Halloween party, how about small apples in dark chocolate or belgium milk chocolate then decorated with gold leaf. The kids could have loads of fun with mini marshmallows, coloured licorice laces and make faces, using smarties as eyes, licorice lace hair & jelly sweet lips.