Spun Sugar Caramel Apples
- Comments()
- Yield Makes 6
Ingredients
- 6 medium McIntosh apples, washed and stemmed
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup dark corn syrup
- Spun Sugar
Directions
-
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Prepare an ice-water bath. Insert one 6-inch-long 1/4-inch dowel into the top of each apple. Place cream, sugar, butter, and corn syrup in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Continue cooking until the temperature registers 245 degrees on a candy thermometer, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat, and briefly plunge the saucepan into ice water to stop the caramel from cooking.
-
Dip one apple into the caramel, and coat the top and sides with caramel using a spoon. Transfer to prepared baking sheet to cool. Repeat with the remaining apples.
-
Dip a whisk or fork into the sugar syrup, and wave back and forth over an apple to draw out long, fine, threadlike strands. Gather the ends of the strands to form a weblike shape around each apple. Repeat with remaining apples, and serve.
Cook's Note
Instead of a fork, Martha uses a cut-off balloon whisk to spin the sugar webs. When working with hot sugar, it is always a good idea to keep a bowl of ice water nearby in case you burn yourself. Humidity causes spun sugar to soften and disintegrate, so be sure to work in a cool, dry environment.
To MaineFlavor, and anybody else reading the comments. If you multiplied this recipe by 50, in order to have a recipe for 300 apples, OF COURSE it's going to take WAAAAAAAY longer for all those caramel ingredients to come to temperature. To those of you who are making a single recipe and are unfamiliar with making caramel, DON'T walk away from the mixture for an hour or two!
To MaineFlavor, and anybody else reading the comments. If you multiplied this recipe by 50, in order to have a recipe for 300 apples, OF COURSE it's going to take WAAAAAAAY longer for all those caramel ingredients to come to temperature. To those of you who are making a single recipe and are unfamiliar with making caramel, DON'T walk away from the mixture for an hour or two!
the fork in the syrup refers to the seperate "spun sugar" recipe. a demo would be nice, but speaking from experience, you can't mess it up. it's fun, a bit messy, but just give it a try. Julia Child did a show using spun sugar once. she waved her fork (dipped in syrup) back and forth over a clean broomstick, then gathered up the strands in bunches, just like you see here.
the time it takes for candy to reach the correct temperature depends partly on your humidity and temperature. generally, it takes much longer in the summer than in the winter. also, when making candy, it is better to make several batches than to double or triple the ingredients and cook at one time.
"fork into the sugar syrup"...What sugar syrup? Does this mean the caramel?
I am so confused, can someone that has done this walk me through the webbing part more thoroughly?
It probably takes an hour or two to make the caramel for a recipe for 300 apples, but in a recipe this size I think you'd be safe to follow the times provided :)
This suggestion, which looks like excellent and like fun, could use a demonstration video!
Someone at MSO should test this recipe and edit the timing note! I made 300 of these (without the spun sugar) for a Waldorf school folkcraft fair this fall, so I'm very familiar with it now. It takes AN HOUR OR TWO... not 10-12 minutes to reach the 245 degress and acheive the consistency necessary before dipping. Thank goodness I tested this a day early