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Caramel Apples |
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The Farmer's Wife
Scullery Servant Joined: 19 October 2011 Location: MT Status: Offline Points: 16 |
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Posted: 13 November 2011 at 23:56 |
Traditional fare for Guy Fawkes Day celebrations along with fried chicken, bonfires, and fireworks!
My good friend Ron says: "It looks like candied, carameled and toffeed apples became a tradition on guy fawkes day (and also halloween) because those holidays fall so soon after the year's apple harvest ~ a great way to use extra apples and create demand when they are high in supply" Thanks, Ron! Caramel Apples
1/2 cup butter (no substitute) 1 cup cream 2 cups sugar 3/4 cup light corn syrup 1/4 cup maple flavored syrup 1/8 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 12 small apples 12 Barbeque skewers or Popsicle sticks Gathering all ingredients – ‘round here ya probably have to skim the cream.
Melt the butter while adding the rest of the ingredients. Warm and stir until sugar dissolves.
Bring to a boil. I made a triple batch and used my 4 qt. dutch oven. Use a large saucepan with a heavy base to evenly distribute heat… will save a lot of trouble with boiling over and scorching. Put over low heat and keep at a slow simmer for about an hour. My triple batch takes a bit over 2 hours. It’s nice to be around the kitchen doing other things while making caramel, you can stir every once in a while on your way past the stove.
Watch a little closer once the candy starts to change to a darker color. The thermometer should hover around 215 for quite a while. Keep it simmering, soft ball stage is just about right for dipping apples, around 225 degrees or just a tad higher. Wash the apples, dry, and keep in the fridge for a few hours or overnight to be sure they are well chilled. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper or freezer paper. Press a popsicle stick into each apple…
Start dipping! Coat
with hot caramel and hold somewhat upside down over the saucepan until it stops
dripping… THEN set right side up on the wax paper lined cookie sheet. Work quickly so you can get them into the fridge
cooling as quickly as possible. That way,
more caramel will stay on the apple instead of puddling around the bottom of
each. If
the caramel does run off the apple, into a puddle, it probably hasn’t
simmered quite long enough. Let it boil
a while longer, test by dropping a teaspoon full into ice water to make sure it
is at a soft – set candy stage.
I store leftover caramel and warm it back up when I want to make more caramel apples later. Just stir as it warms up. It needs to be around 180 degrees to be warm enough to coat the apples really well.
Wrap in Saran or other plastic wrap and tie with a piece of ribbon or raffia for storing in the refrigerator, or gifts. The plastic wrap will peel off without much sticking at all, in my experience. It works great and keeps the apples from absorbing flavors of other foods stored in the refrigerator! I used very fresh Honeycrisp apples from a local orchard, which have been fabulous and stay very fresh - they get eaten up in just a few days at my house... Enjoy!!! |
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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now those look wonderful, and perfect for this time of year ~ thanks for a great job of posting a detailed recipe and instructions, and of course for the very nice pix! those apples really look great, both before and after ~ i may have to get some details on your local orchard ~
now THAT'S how you know it's the good stuff!
the best part for me was that i didn't know about the tie-in to guy fawkes day, so thank you for providing a history lesson, as well!
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Hoser
Admin Group Joined: 06 February 2010 Location: Cumberland, RI Status: Offline Points: 3454 |
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Boy, they sure do look good...any idea how they became associated with Guy Fawkes Day?
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Go ahead...play with your food!
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The Farmer's Wife
Scullery Servant Joined: 19 October 2011 Location: MT Status: Offline Points: 16 |
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Thanks! We picked apples at the Anderson Orchard in Rudyard. They have a nice orchard of dwarf trees absolutely loaded down with apples, and are adding another 60 trees next year.
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The Farmer's Wife
Scullery Servant Joined: 19 October 2011 Location: MT Status: Offline Points: 16 |
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I have no idea about the association to Guy Fawkes celebrations! Our friends from Cornwall, England had us over every year for Guy Fawkes Day. I noticed they always served fried chicken and caramel apples, and asked if it was tradition. Liz replied emphatically "VERY traditional!".
Here is a link to a site discussing British traditions: http://www.learnenglish.de/culture/bonfirenight.htm I think interesting! |
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MomInAnApron
Cook Joined: 09 March 2011 Location: Montana, USA Status: Offline Points: 99 |
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Oh, those look beautiful. You made that look so easy! Thank you for the recipe.
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~ Good Friends, Good Food, Good Times ~
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TasunkaWitko
Admin Group Joined: 25 January 2010 Location: Chinook, MT Status: Offline Points: 9356 |
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>>>My good friend Ron says: "It looks like candied, carameled and toffeed apples became a tradition on guy fawkes day (and also halloween) because those holidays fall so soon after the year's apple harvest ~ a great way to use extra apples and create demand when they are high in supply" Thanks, Ron!<<<
any time!
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