29 Oct Popcorn Coated Toffee Apples
Is there really a snack that says “Autumn” more than toffee apples??? Halloween? Yep! Bonfire night? Yep. Random autumn evenings snuggling in front of a warm fire with crisp golden leaves falling off the tree outside? Hell yep!
Cracking through the sweet crunchy toffee into the juicy apple, just the thought of it is making me feel all warm and cosy…… deliciously awesome and an added bonus, surely it still counts as 1 of your 5 a day right?!?! Plus, they’re super easy to make, so the real question is why not?
In this recipe I’ve given your classic old school toffee apple a cheeky Uniqucorn twist, Toffee apple dipped in Toffee apple Uniqucorn, DOUBLE TOFFEE APPLE! It’s the inception you never knew you needed until now!!!
To start with line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Pop all your apples in a bowl and cover with boiling water straight from the kettle. This just gets rid of the waxy coating supermarkets spray onto fruit to keep it looking fresh and shiny. It also helps the toffee stick better. You don’t want to actually start to cook the apples, so only leave them in the boiling water for a minute or 2 before draining it out.
I love using Gala apples for this, they’re my absolute fave apples. I love the sweetness (forever me, the crazy sugar addict) and the texture works perfectly with the crunch of the toffee, plus the colour works really well to help enhance the Red of the toffee.
Once they’re drained skewer with one of the toffee apple sticks through where the stalk grew. I prefer using round bamboo sticks with tapered ends like these. I find them easier to skewer and being made of bamboo makes them a more sustainable option.
Bash your Toffee apple flavoured Uniqucorn with a rolling pin this can be done with the popcorn still in the bag but open the bag first, so it doesn’t pop. Yes, I did make this mistake myself the first time I tried, and it wasn’t pretty, there was popcorn everywhere. I swear I’m still finding it a few days later. Once you’ve bashed it into little pieces pop it into a bowl, something like a cereal bowl will be perfect so it’s not too shallow to get a good coating up the apple. Once you start dipping from the toffee to the popcorn it can get a bit sticky in there so my top tip would be just to put ½ the popcorn into the bowl to start with then top it up again after a few apples have been done.
Now you’re ready to make your toffee (the best part). This is best done in a medium sized pan. If the pan is too big the toffee won’t be deep enough to dip the apples properly, but make sure its big enough that the sugar wont boil over the sides. For the Toffee either granulated sugar or caster sugar is fine, whichever you have to hand. Add in the juice of one lemon, this helps balance some of the sweetness in the toffee. Make sure you don’t have any of the pulp in the juice as this can cause imperfections in the shiny toffee coating. Mix the red food colouring with 75ml water, mixing the food colouring with the water first ensures a lovely even colour.
The final ingredient is the Golden syrup, that sweet sticky stuff in a metal tin. Ok, Ok so you don’t need to get the metal tin now-a-days it does come in squeezy plastic bottles too but A)Single use plastic – no thanks! and B) OMG I just can’t look at a tin of it without thinking of baking with my Nan and it makes me feel all warm and squishy on the inside.
Pop all your toffee ingredients into your pan and give them a quick mix around before turning the heat on. Its super important that you don’t mix or disturb the mixture once you have started to heat it as this can lead to the sugar crystalising. Bring it to the boil over a high heat and leave to bubble away until it reaches hard rock stage. If you have a sugar thermometer this is 150C, or if like me you don’t you can tell by dropping small drips into cold water, if they go hard straight away its ready, if they’re still a bit soft and squishy it needs a bit longer.
Dip your apples in the hot toffee mixture, you may need to tip the pan on an angle to get the apple completely coated but be super careful not to get any one yourself. Dip straight away into your popcorn crumbs gently patten some into the toffee, then place on your baking parchment. You will need to work pretty quickly here, so the toffee doesn’t harden. If it does start to harden before you’ve finished, you can gently reheat the toffee mixture to loosen it up again but don’t bring it back to boiling as it could burn quickly.
And there you have it lovely shiny red popcorn coated toffee apples ready for our autumn mischief.
Best enjoyed on the day of making.
Serves 6 Easy 15mins
Popcorn coated Toffee Apples Recipe
Ingredients:
50g Toffee apple flavoured Uniqucorn
6 apples
300g Sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
4 tbsp Golden syrup
Red food colouring
6 toffee apple sticks.
- Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Pop the apples in a bowl and Cover them with boiling water. Whilst they are soaking, keeping it in its original bag bash the Uniqucorn with a rolling pin break it up into small pieces. After 2 mins drain the apples from the water. Pop a stick into each apple where the stem of the apple was.
- Mix the red food colouring with 75ml water. Pop the sugar, lemon juice, golden syrup and coloured water into a Medium saucepan and give it all a quick stir. Once combined pop over a high heat and bring to the boil. Heat it to “hard crack” stage, 150C or if you don’t have a sugar thermometer test it by dripping a small amount into some cold water, if it hardens instantly and is brittle when removed its ready! Whilst the pan is boiling tip your crushed Uniqucorn into a bowl.
- Dip each Apple into the toffee tipping the pan on the side to cover the whole apple, straight away then dip the apple into the crushed Uniqucorn and gently pat down to hold on then pop on your greaseproof paper to set. Work quickly to get all apples covered before the sugar sets.
- Best enjoyed the same day with a great big happy smile on your face.
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