Candy Apples

Candy Apples
3lbs Granny Smith Apples
1 + 1/4 (850g) cup sugar
1 + 1/2 (340g) water
1/3 cups and 2 tbsp (170g) corn syrup
Food coloring
Flavor oil (I used cotton candy)
Edible glitter
Candy apple sticks (or skewers, or popsicle sticks)

First, prep your apples by putting them in a hot water bath for 10-15 minutes. Dry and buff with a towel to remove wax coating and dirt. Remove apple stems and insert candy stick. Place apples in the fridge until ready to use.

Also prep your cooling area. When the apples have been freshly dipped, they should cool on a surface where they won’t get stuck. I used a silicone mat, but you can also use a greased surface, like greased parchment paper.

In a large pot, combine sugar, water, and corn syrup. Turn your burner on to high heat and insert a candy thermometer and check the temperate periodically. You want it to reach 300˚F.

While the water and sugar begins to boil, keep a pastry brush and bowl of water nearby and brush the inside walls of the pot with water frequently to remove any splattered sugar. This will help to prevent the sugar from crystallizing. Also, do not stir!

Once the water and sugar reach 280˚F, you can add your flavoring, color, and glitter. At this temperature, the additional ingredients won’t have been cooking this whole time so won’t cook out, and you will still have an active boil for enough time to let everything get mixed in evenly without stirring. No stirring.

I used cotton candy oil, and used between 1/2 and 1 dropper capacity for Lorann’s 1-dram size bottles. I’m going to guess that’s 1/8 or 1/16 tsp? Use your best judgement here. Personally, I think for candy, go for more rather than less.

Red is a notoriously difficult color to achieve. So, instead of carefully dropping in your color like you normally would, you’re going to need a few good squirts. You want your boiling candy to get quite dark, so it looks like spoOOOoooky blood. The dye will disperse quite slowly, so don’t worry if it seems like it isn’t doing anything at first.

For the glitter, I used the handle of a spoon, scoop out a small mound of glitter and toss it in the pot as well.

Let the temperature continue to rise until the candy reaches 300˚F. At this point, lower your burner temperature to the lowest setting and let the mixture get back down to 280˚F to start dipping apples. It the temperature is still rising or doesn’t seem to be cooling down, remove the pot from the heat for a minute or two.

At 280˚F, the bubbling should have mostly stopped or at least calmed down. At this point, carefully dip an apple into the pot and spin the stick in your hand to completely coat the apple. Once it is covered, remove promptly and allow excess to drip off before placing the apple on a silicone sheet or greased parchment paper.

Repeat the dipping process until you’ve used up all of your apples!

The candy should set completely in 30 minutes and then can be enjoyed. I recommend smacking the apple on a hard surface, or hitting it with a heavy spoon to get a crack in the candy and make that first bite doable. After that, you’re golden.

Brush apple with a very small amount of water in any places you want to have sprinkles.

Wrap remaining apples in plastic wrap, or place in an airtight container to avoid premature stickiness.

Other notes:
You should really use Granny Smith apples. I like Honeycrisp so my first batch was a couple that I had already, and it was NOT great. The apples were too sweet and too soft and TOO BIG. Granny Smith has the perfect amount of tartness to balance out the sweet coating, and they have a GREAT crunch, and the perfect size. Plus, that bright green that peeps out at the top is so pretty with the red.

Crystallized sugar isn’t just some grainy bits, it’s a whole different texture and the whole this is gross. So, do whatever you can to avoid this. You can’t fix it when it does this, you just have to try again. It happens though, so don’t worry about it. Sugar is tempermental even when you’ve done it every day for a week. There’s no shame in trying again.

There will be bubbles. I read a lot of recipes that were trying to make you believe it’s possible. There are a lot of tips, but when I made them, I didn’t really worry that much about it. While you don’t want it to be a completely covered wart apple (OR DO YOU IT’S HALLOWEEN), a bubble or two are going to pop up out of no where. Wash the apples, and try to prevent them, but don’t panic when they come up anyway. It’s candy and it’s fun and it doesn’t need to be perfect.

The candy will harden waaaay faster than you can sprinkle anything cute on them. What I did was take a damp pastry brush and brush around the surface to make it sticky enough to hold sprinkles. Or, wait until tomorrow when the apples end up getting sticky anyway (thank humidity) and put on your sprinkles then.

Boiling. Sugar. Is. Hot.

Don’t get burned. Wear gloves and long sleeves if you’re worried about it.

Have a good halloween, and give these apples away to some friends and neighbors!

The last photo in this sequence is what crystalized sugar looks like!