Christmas toffee apples

Ingredients:

• 6 small apples
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp table vinegar
• 1 cup water
• red food colouring
• 6 lolly sticks

Preparation:

Line the baking sheet with baking paper and grease it with butter. Wash and core the apples then make sure they are dry. Insert a lolly stick into each apple. Add the sugar, water and vinegar to a pan and place it over a medium heat, stirring constantly. Don’t let it start to boil until all the sugar has dissolved.

Then add a few drops of red food colouring and bring the mixture to the boil. Remove any sugar that collects around the edges of the pan.

Turn the heat down once the mixture comes to the boil and leave it to stand for about a quarter of an hour. Do not stir. You can test the toffee by dropping a teaspoon of the mixture into cold water. If it forms a ball, it’s ready.

Dip the apples in the mixture one by one and turn them so that they are covered in the toffee all over. This step won’t take long. Be careful because the mixture is very hot. Arrange the apples on the baking sheet and leave them to harden at room temperature. Hopefully the apples will end up looking nice and shiny, with tiny little bubbles in the red toffee. That makes these Christmas toffee apples even nicer!