Food & Drink

It's the time of year when ghosts and ghouls come out to play and these delicious, rich and golden brown Halloween Toffee Apples are the perfect ending to any fright night feast.
 
Kirstie Allsopp, the queen of homemade cooking brings you a recipe that combines sweet, creamy caramel flavours and crunchy apple. As always, they are simple for you to make in the comfort of your own home.
 
The Nestlé Carnation Caramel is what makes this sweet desert so special, as it gives the toffee a delightful creamy flavour and glossy texture. Make sure there is plenty to go round as these toffee apples will definitely get the trick or treater's knocking at your door again.
 
Log on to www.carnation.co.uk to find new delicious recipes every month from Kirstie Allsopp.

Recipe
 
Makes 6 sandwiches
 
Preparation time: 10 minutes
 
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
 
Ingredients
 
6 eating apples
 
175g (6oz) light buttery spread
 
100g (3˝oz) maple or golden syrup
 
225g (8oz) light brown soft sugar
 
200g (7oz) Carnation Condensed Milk
 
Method
 1.Dunk the apples into a large bowl of boiling water for 30 seconds, remove with a slotted spoon and allow to cool slightly before wiping the skins with kitchen paper – this will remove any wax from the apples and allow the toffee to stick better to the skin.
 2.Holding the apple firmly, insert a chopstick or lolly stick into the apples near the core. Place a piece of parchment onto a baking sheet.
 3.Place the remaining ingredients into a large pan and melt gently over a low heat. Then bring to the boil for about 15-20 minutes stirring frequently – if you have a food thermometer the temperature you need is about 130C! IT IS VERY HOT SO BE CAREFUL! It will be quite a deep brown caramel colour and will have a cinder toffee smell.
 4.Remove from the heat, and very carefully take each apple and roll in the toffee to coat completely. Leave to set on the parchment until hard.
 
Tips
 
If your caramel doesn't set hard on the apples – it will be because the toffee did not get hot enough.  It still makes a lovely chewy caramel but a good test of 'readiness' is if you drop a small bit of the toffee into ice cold water and it forms very hard toffee. Small strands should shatter, if it is soft and chewy then it needs to get hotter!