If you fancy dishing out treats rather than tricks this Halloween, this recipe for toffee apples is the perfect thing to whip up for friends and family.
Delicious sweet Halloween apples are often associated with the spooky holiday, and this recipe for gorgeous toffee coated apples from TV favourite Kirstie Allsopp is sure to go down a storm.
Combining sweet, caramel flavours and crunchy apple, this recipe is lovely and creamy because of the secret ingredient – condensed milk.
Even better, the toffee apples are really easy to make, with a preparation time of 10 minutes and cooking time of 10-15 minutes.
Ingredients: makes 6 toffee apples
• 6 eating apples
• 175g (6oz) light buttery spread
• 100g (3½oz) maple or golden syrup
• 225g (8oz) light brown soft sugar
• 200g (7oz) condensed milk
Method:
1. Dunk the apples into a large bowl of boiling water for 30 seconds, remove with a slotted spoon and allow to cool slightly before wiping the skins with kitchen paper – this will remove any wax from the apples and allow the toffee to stick better to the skin.
2. Holding the apple firmly, insert a chopstick or lolly stick into the apples near the core. Place a piece of parchment onto a baking sheet.
3. Place the remaining ingredients into a large pan and melt gently over a low heat. Then bring to the boil for about 15-20 minutes stirring frequently – if you have a food thermometer the temperature you need is about 130C. It’s very hot, so be careful! It will be quite a deep brown caramel colour and will have a cinder toffee smell.
4. Remove from the heat, and very carefully take each apple and roll in the toffee to coat completely. Leave to set on the parchment until hard.
Tips:
If your caramel doesn’t set hard on the apples it will be because the toffee did not get hot enough. It still makes a lovely chewy caramel but a good test of ‘readiness’ is if you drop a small bit of the toffee into ice cold water and it forms very hard toffee. Small strands should shatter; if it is soft and chewy then it needs to get hotter!
HALLOWEEN TRICKS AND TREATS:
