Recipes: Tasty Toffee Apples

I don’t want to sound like an ol’ biddy but Halloween is getting really commercial. I did live a fairly Dickensian childhood but when I was a young lass; all the decorations were handmade, weeks were spent sowing costumes and, with the exception of monkey nuts, all treats were homemade. Of course, to be honest, the main reason why everything was handmade was because there was feck all to buy.

Shops only sold three masks: the Witch Mask, the Frankenstein Mask and the Skeleton Mask. No matter what you dressed up as, you had to wear one of three masks unless you went for a painted face. The street would be filled with the same masks which kind of took out the scare factor.

These days, most kids buy their own costumes and their trick or treat bags are stuffed full of hard cash; enough to buy a small oil rig. Well, I’m going old school this year and making my own toffee apples. By making your own, you get to customise them and have your very own bespoke treats. Here are a couple of ideas:

Crunchy Caramel Toffee Apples:

Ingredients:

• 6 Granny Smith apples
• 6 wooden sticks
• 100g toffee
• 2 tablespoons water
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 250g Caramelised Biscuits, roughly crushed
• 125g milk chocolate, chopped
• 125g white chocolate, chopped

Instructions:

1. Insert wooden sticks ¾ of the way into the stem end of each apple. Place apples on a baking tray covered with lightly greased tin foil.
2. Combine toffee and water in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring often, until toffee melts and is smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Dip each apple into the toffee and gently run apples around insides of saucepan to scrape off some of the toffee. Scrape excess toffee from the apple bottoms using the side of the saucepan.
3. Spread the crushed biscuits out on a dinner plate. Roll toffee apples in the biscuits and place on the foil. Place the milk chocolate and white chocolate into separate microwave-safe bowls. Heat in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring between each, until melted and smooth. Drizzle milk chocolate over the apples, then drizzle the white chocolate over the milk chocolate. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Caramel Apples with Almond and Sesame Seeds:

Ingredients:

• 8 Granny Smith apples
• Marzipan
• 8 wooden sticks
• ¾ cup sliced almonds, toasted
• ¾ cup sesame seeds, toasted
• 1 ¾ cups cream
• 2 cups brown sugar
• ¾ cup dark honey syrup
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Starting on the bottom, core the apples. Reserve the bottom “plugs” of the apples. Continue coring up to the top inch of the apples (you just want all the seeds removed). Line a baking tray with tin foil and set it aside.
2. Stuff the apples with 1 to 2 tablespoons of the marzipan, then close with the reserved apple plugs. Push the sticks through the stem ends of the apples and set the apples on the prepared baking tray.
3. Place the almonds and sesame seeds in a bowl; set aside. Prepare an ice water bath by filling a bowl halfway with ice and water.
4. Combine remaining ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes. Immediately dip the bottom of the saucepan in the ice water bath and let it chill until the bubbles have subsided, about 1 minute. Stir until any stiff caramel from the bottom is incorporated into the warm caramel on top. Remove from the water bath.
5. Dip the apples one at a time into the caramel, rotating once to coat ¾ of the way up the sides.
6. Roll each apple in the almond mixture and hold upright for 10 to 15 seconds. Place back on the prepared baking tray and repeat with the remaining apples. (If the caramel gets too hard to coat the apples well, set the pan over low heat and rewarm, stirring constantly, until the caramel is loose and pourable.)

Refrigerate the apples until set, at least 10 minutes. The apples can be made and stored in the refrigerator up to 1 day in advance.