Description
How to Make Candy Apples Any Color! This is the Best Candy Apple recipe. It is easy and makes sweet and crunchy candy apples. These are a traditional fall treat - perfect for your Fall Fest or Halloween party. You can make the best candy apples in under 30 minutes with just a few basic pantry ingredients!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 6-8 medium apples (washed, dried & stems removed)**
- 3 cups (700ml) of white sugar
- 1/2 cup (120ml) light corn syrup
- 1 cup (240ml) water
- 1 tsp (5ml) vanilla extract (or other flavoring)
- 2 tbsp (30ml) white food coloring (I recommend AmeriColor Bright White Soft Gel Paste or Lorann White Food Coloring)
- 1-2 tsp. of gel coloring (whichever color you want your apples to be! - I used Americolor Electric Pink and Americolor Orange) - the more color you use, the brighter the apples will be!)
- Candy Apple Sticks (or craft sticks or short dowels)
- ** I used rather large Granny Smith Apples. I love the tartness of the green apples, but I wish they had been smaller. They were hard to wrap and I wasn't able to dip as many as the recipe indicated!
Other things you'll need:
- Cookie Sheet
- Non-stick Spray
- Heavy Duty Boiler or Sauce Pan
- Candy Thermometer
- Rubber Spatula
Instructions
- Combine the sugar, corn syrup, water, and food coloring (both the white and color you want the apples to be) in a heavy boiler (sauce pan). Turn on medium to high heat and let the mixture come to a boil.
- Be sure to have a candy thermometer inserted into the mixture but not touching the bottom!
- Let the candy come to 302°F (hard crack stage). This will take about 20 minutes. There's no need to stir or disturb the mixture while it heats... just be patient!
- While that's going on... make sure your apples are ready (washed, dried, and on the sticks!), then spray a cookie sheet with non-stick butter spray. The "butter" flavor isn't necessary, but butter makes everything better, right? If you don't have butter, just use regular non-stick cooking spray.
- When the candy reaches 302°, immediately remove it from the heat and use a rubber spatula to stir in the vanilla (or other flavor). Stir it gently to get the flavor evenly incorporated but without mixing in too much air.
- You'll want to work quickly because the candy will start to cool immediately. As soon as the flavor is evenly mixed in, begin dipping your apples.
- I usually tilt the pot so that I can dip as much of the apple as possible and then turn it to completely cover the apple in candy. Then lift it up and let any excess candy mixture drip off before placing the apples on the prepared baking sheet to cool.
- Once they are set and cooled (which happens quickly), you can begin to package them or enjoy them!
- Prep Time: 40
- Cook Time: 30
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Cooktop
- Cuisine: American
