{
    "id": 1070558,
    "title": "Toffee apples",
    "slug": "toffee-apples",
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    "url": "https://sweeties.net/wiki/toffee-apples/",
    "modified": "2026-09-26T13:03:05+01:00",
    "excerpt": "Toffee apples are whole apples on a stick, dipped in a hard sugar coating. Sold in London in the 1890s, they are eaten in autumn across the UK.",
    "content_text": "A toffee apple is one of the simplest and most seasonal of British treats: a whole apple on a stick, dipped in a hard, shiny sugar coating. They appear every autumn at fairs, fireworks nights and Halloween parties.\nWhat a toffee apple is\nToffee apples, called candy apples in American English, are whole apples covered in a sugar coating, with a stick pushed in as a handle. The coating is sugar heated to the hard crack stage, so that it sets hard and glassy around the fruit. In the United States the most common coating is made from sugar, corn syrup, water, cinnamon and red food colouring, which is why candy apples are usually bright red. In the UK the coating is traditionally toffee.\nToffee apples are not the same as caramel apples, which have a soft, chewy caramel coating and are made by a different process.\nWhere they came from\nToffee apples were sold in London in the 1890s. In America, the invention of the red candy apple is often credited to William W. Kolb, a sweet maker in Newark, New Jersey. In 1908, while experimenting with red cinnamon candy for the Christmas trade, he dipped some apples in the mixture and put them in his shop window. He sold the whole batch at 5 cents each, and went on to sell thousands a year.\nBonfire Night and Halloween\nToffee apples are an autumn treat because they come just after the apple harvest. In the UK they are eaten at Halloween, especially in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and on Bonfire Night in England, Scotland and Wales. They sit alongside treacle toffee as fireworks night sweets: see Bonfire Night sweets and treacle toffee.\nAround the world\nThe toffee apple travels well. In France they are pommes d'amour, apples of love, and in Brazil maçã do amor, eaten at festivals for Saint John the Baptist. In Germany they are most often linked with Christmas, in Australia the Granny Smith is thought the ideal apple for them, and in China a similar treat called tanghulu coats small fruits such as hawthorns in hard sugar.\nMaking them at home\nToffee apples are fun to make, but the sugar must reach the hard crack stage, and it is extremely hot, so children should only help under close supervision. Damp, humid weather can stop the coating from setting hard. See how to make toffee apples.",
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