Raspberry & Vanilla flavoured Toffee Apples w/ a touch of Gold

One of my favourite childhood memories is going to school galas. I loved the carnival / market stalls atmosphere, but most importantly, loved seeing all the baked goods and sweets for sale. One of the favourite things I loved seeing was of course Toffee Apples aka Candy Apples. Mr Lee LOVES THESE too, and I had always intended to make my own at home but never have... until now!
I remember Toffee apples to be the classic glossy shade of red, but have seen many variations since. These days Toffee apples can be seen with extra coating of things such as hundreds and thousands, chopped nuts, chocolate chips, Gummi bears and mini marshmallows. For my own version, I thought the delicious candy shell contained enough sugar, so made a version with a bit of a twist... a fruit on fruit option if you will.

These are Toffee apples like you remember but with a flavour boost of tart Raspberry powder and Vanilla. When I went shopping the other day I came upon a range of flavours from a KIWI company called "Fresh As" that sold freeze dried whole/sliced fruits and fruit powder (they also sell freeze dried herbs!). This was perfect as a topping to my Toffee Apples, adding just the right amount of tartness to sweetness ratio.

{I seem to appear in a lot of my photos don't I? This wasn't intentional!}

Raspberry & Vanilla flavoured Toffee Apples recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups White Sugar

• 1/2 cup Light Corn Syrup

• 3/4 cup water

• 1/2 tsp Good Vanilla extract

• Food colouring - I used Wilton's "Pink Teracotta" gel

• Candy thermometer

• 9 small Granny Smith apples or Gala apples or a mixture

• 9 paddlesticks (sturdy ones) or round wooden sticks

• "Fresh As" brand Raspberry powder

• Optional: Gold Luster powder + water + brush

Steps:

1.     Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with tinfoil (this is where you will set your coated toffee apple)  

2.     Wash apples in warm water to get rid of any possible wax coating that may be on the apples. Wipe them dry and remove the stalks

3.     Skewer the paddlesticks where the stalk of each apple used to be. Ensure that the apple can still sit upright on its own without wobbling, and that the paddlestick is sticking straight up.

4.     Place the Sugar, Corn Syrup, Water, Vanilla extract and food colouring into a medium saucepan with a candy thermometer. Place on stove and turn heat on medium-high. 

5.     Stir to dissolve the sugar, making sure the sugar is dissolved before the mixture starts bubbling

6.     Bring the toffee mixture to a boil.  And once the mixture boils, DON'T STIR IT!  If you get sugar crystal formations on the side of the saucepan, dab a pastry brush in water and brush it away.

7.     Turn the heat down to a medium simmer, and let it simmer away until the temperature on the candy thermometer reaches 300 ^o F or 150 ^o C for a brittle crunch. Turn off the heat. This is the max temperature you should reach, otherwise the toffee will either start burning, or you will be getting a TOOTH cracking crunch!

8.     Once heat has been turned off, work quickly to coat your apples before the toffee starts to thicken and go hard. Dip each apple holding the wooden stick, submerge completely in the toffee. Tilt the saucepan and swirl the apple around to get a full coating. Spin your toffee apple around on its side to get rid of any bubbles ... or just keep the bubbles, it looks quite cool.

9.     Quickly sprinkle your raspberry powder on top of each toffee apple as you go, before setting the apple down onto your prepared tinfoil baking sheet.

10. The toffee apples should be good to go when the toffee has hardened in 10 minutes (tap each one with your finger to test)

11. Optional extra for presentation: Using a touch of water and gold lustre powder, mix this with your small brush and stroke quick strokes onto each hardened toffee apple 

* Remember this is better made in dry cooler weather. Your caramel will only sweat and not harden if you do it in the heat! Also, these are best eaten on the day of toffee dipping or at the very max, the next day!

To add to their appeal (not that it needed it) I thought I'd play around with some Gold lustre powder.

{Spot Mr Lee :) }

I hope my workmates appreciated these... they were given all the leftovers that Mr Lee and I couldn't finish! One German workmate of mine told me they called these treats "Lover's apples" in Germany! WooooOOOoOoo.

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