Toffee Apples

I have always loved toffee apples. My very first blog on Livejournal was called toffeeappledays! I wanted to make some toffee apples with the girls this year so, this morning, i went over to the supermarket and picked up the ingredients we needed.

I actually thought it would be an activity that the girls could join in on, but they could only really do a little bit as the actual process of making them is very quick and you have to handle very hot mixture. They didn't really mind though and loved eating them afterwards and putting the apples in the toffee mixture to cover them. I used this recipe from BBC goodfood but added a little red food colouring in to give the toffee and deeper red colour as, to me, that is the traditional look for them.

It was really fun to do and the girls pretended they were ice creams afterwards and it very much kept them quiet for a while whilst they ate them. Elle wants to take one in for her teacher, so i am going to bag one up so she can take one in on Monday for her.

I have linked to the recipe in the post but here is the process on how i made them:

-I washed the apples and waited for them to be completely dry
-I used sticks and pushed them half way through the apple via the top
-I wrapped a chopping board in baking/greaseproof paper ready for the apples to put on once they have been covered in the toffee
-I made up the toffee sauce, adding red food colouring. It mentions about the hard crack stage in the recipe. All i did here was have a jug of cold water next to the stove and every few mins, i spooned a little mixture into the water. It would float to the bottom and harden instantly. I would scoop it out and bend it. If the toffee was soft and would not crack, then keep boiling until the toffee bit snaps after placing in the water. It only took about 6/7 mins of boiling for my mixture to reach this stage.
-Once the mixture was ready, i took the sauce pan to the dining room table where the girls were waiting with apples in their hands. I waited for the bubbles to stop and gave it a quick stir. The girls then place their apples in the sauce pan and i tipped the pan onto it's side so the girls could twirl their apples around in the toffee. Once the apples were covered, i took them from the girls and held them for about 20 seconds over the pan until it has stopped dripping and placed them on the chopping board. The apples were hard and ready to eat nearly instantly!

Happy making!!!