Kirstie Allsopp's toffee apples

Try this all-time favourite at home but take care when making as the toffee gets very hot! Children can help to weigh out and melt the ingredients but should let mum do the boiling and coating

• Preparation: 10 mins
• Cooking: 15 mins
• Serves: 6

What you need:

• 6 eating apples
• 175g (6oz) light buttery spread
• 100g (3 1/2oz) maple or golden syrup
• 225g (8oz) light brown soft sugar
• 200g (7oz) Carnation Condensed Milk

What you do:

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.

Cook's tip:

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!

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