Toffee Apples

Fireworks night and you just have to have a good old fashion bonfire treat of toffee apples.

I made pretty sticks for the apples by cross wrapping ribbon round them before i pushed them into the apples.

First apples have wax on them so when i did my first apple it didn't feel waxy at all but the caramel just slide off the apple making a mess.  So i washed them in hot not boiling water to make sure all the wax was off the apples.

to make the caramel i put in a heavy bottom pan the following

1 cup of corn syrup
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup of dark brown sugar
1 cup of double cream
1/4 tsp of salt

Corn syrup is used a lot in America and i really like it as its not as heavy or as sweet as golden syrup and it has a cleaner purer taste.  I have never found it in the supermarkets but found a store on-line that sells it.

I melted the sugars and cream together over a medium heat and used my sugar thermometer to watch when it the sugars hit 234 degrees this took about 10 - 15 mins and i dropped in

3tablespoons of butter
3/4 tsp of vanilla bean paste but you can use extract

Don't be tempted to get your apples swooshing in the mix as you will hit disaster again as the mix needs to be left to cool for about 5 minuets to thicken and then it will hold better on the apple. Let the excess run off and place on grease proof paper, here i came a cropper again and found i needed to oil the paper as well to stop the apples sticking and ripping off the bottom of the caramel from the apple

also the first time i tried to decorate my apples i found that the caramel set so quickly that i didn't have a chance to get my sprinkles on them so i left them for a bit to set properly and then gently re heated the left over caramel and used a teaspoon to dribble fresh hot wet caramel in the places i wanted to decorate and just try and work quickly.  Be careful thought caramel is very hot and sticky and will hold fast to your skin and burn it.

My last tip for clean the pan don't worry about scrubbing it just fill it with water and put back on the hob to heat up and all the sugar melts away

Hope you have a cracking bonfire night.