While our kitchen is out of action (yes still) I have asked a few fabulous bloggers to share one of their favourite family recipes. This one is from Ali from At Home with Ali.
My 4 year old has been asking me to make toffee apples for ages. To be honest I had put them in the ‘too hard’ basket… surely you buy toffee apples, not make them. When the fruit bowl was overflowing with apples I finally caved and had a look on the internet for an easy recipe… and much to my surprise I found one. I even had all the ingredients in the pantry. My daughters were beyond excited!
Here is the recipe for our home made toffee apples.
| Toffee Apples |
- Approx 15 small apples
- 4 cups of white sugar
- 1 cup of water
- 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
- 2 teaspoons of red liquid food colouring
- Push a paddle pop stick into each apple.
- Place sugar and water into a saucepan over low heat. Stir until dissolved.
- Stop stirring and bring to the boil.
- Add cream of tartar and red food colouring.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until it reaches hard crack stage. This was the tricky bit. I had never heard of ‘hard crack stage’. To check for this stage add a teaspoon of the hot toffee to a glass of ice cold water. Remove the solidified toffee from the water and bend it. The toffee should crack easily and not feel sticky. Note: I went through a whole tray of ice cubes attempting to diagnose hard crack stage. After 30 minutes of simmering the toffee I gave up. I knew we hadn’t reached hard crack stage but I was more worried about burning the toffee and devastating two small children.
- If you do hit hard crack stage remove the toffee from heat immediately.
- Once the toffee has stopped bubbling, dip the apples. Completely coat the apples in toffee by tipping the saucepan on an angle.
- Stand the toffee apples on a lined baking tray and allow to set at room temperature.
[img src=”https://picklebums.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/toffee-apples-1.jpg” alt=”apples” title=”making home made toffee apples!” width=”500″ height=”351″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-11024″ /]
[img src=”https://picklebums.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/toffee-apples-2.jpg” alt=”toffee” title=”making home made toffee apples!” width=”500″ height=”335″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-11028″ /]
Our home made toffee apples looked sensational and tasted great. They were a little sticky but nobody minded as we munched and crunched our way through the apples. The recipe was so easy and yummy I would even consider doing it again one day…
Ali is a mum to two young girls who love to make things. Her blog, At home with Ali, chronicles the creative activities that fill their days. It is a mixture of art and craft activities, messy outdoor play, gardening and things to make for play. You can also find Ali on facebook, twitter, google+ and pinterest.
My mouth wants some sugary sweetness right now. Either I’m going to have to make some toffee apples or have a cup of tea with TWO spoons of sugar (I usually have one). Yummmmmmy I love toffee apples!
I so want one or two right now, fab photos x
Oh wow! You know, I’ve never eaten a toffee apple?!! Is it worth giving a try!! haha!
Now I have Peter Coombe singing in my head LOL Yum yum!
They look sensational! We recently made toffee apples for the first time too – as part of a Carnival themed birthday party. They were surprisingly easy to make and very popular!
So delicious and what fab photos! Hope your kitchen isn’t too far away from being finished Kate. xo P
What stunning photos Ali! Love how simple you made this look, I’d also put toffee apples in the too hard basket. Pinning now :-)
I don’t think I’ve had one of these since I was 10 years old….but I really, really want one. They look so tempting.
Did your girls love them? Have they happily gone back to eating apples?
Hi Jackie, the girls did love them, particularly my eldest who has a sweet tooth. I didn’t really think through whether plain apples would be seen as a downgrade after toffee apples. Both my girls love fruit so it hasn’t been an issue for us… thankfully. :)
Hi nice to meet u,stumbled across ur blog.I made the same recipe for my son’s 4th birthday 2weeks ago, hit same no crack stage and also gave up and covered the apples anyway though after a couple of hours I felt they had set and foolishly put them into a container only to discover on morning of party tht they had all congealed into one giant toffee apple did toy with idea of just putting it out n letting kids fight it out but in end ditched the whole lot v disheartened.