Candy Apples – A Beautiful Mess

Candy apples are a classic fall treat with their shiny red color, hard candy coating, and sweet or tart crisp apple underneath. It’s the best thing to make after apple picking, for a Halloween party, or just when you feel nostalgic and want to be a kid again.

Candy apples may look impressive and hard to make, but it’s actually pretty easy (just like our Easy Caramel Apples!)! We’ll show you how …

And just as a side note, since the sugar is extremely hot and you can get burned if not careful, we don’t recommend doing this project with kids. Just let them eat the final result rather than help with this one. 🙂

Looking for more fall treats? Check out:

What are candy apples?

Candy apples are a whole apple on a stick dipped in a thin hardened candy shell. While usually red, they can also be dyed other colors and they first appeared in 1908 in New Jersey when candy maker William Kolb created them.

Ingredients for candy apples:

• Apples: Using smaller apples will get you more finished apples out of one batch of candy coating. Try and pick ones with a nice round shape for the best looking candy apples.

• Light corn syrup: Corn syrup helps you get that smooth candy finish.

• Water: The water mostly boils off while the candy rises up to the proper hard crack stage temperature.

• Red food coloring: Gel food coloring is preferred if you have it since it’s more concentrated so the color is brighter.

Supplies for candy apples:

• Apple skewers: You can also use popsicle sticks or even sticks from branches for your skewers, but we like these bamboo ones since they already have a point for easy insertion.

How to prepare your apples:

Wash and dry apples: You want to try and remove any wax that’s on the apples so your coating will stick and you can avoid getting annoying bubbles that pop out of the coating.

You can scrub them really well with a clean textured scrubber after rinsing them in hot water and rub them dry with a textured towel to try and remove as much wax as you can, or some people like to boil water and dip the apples in the water for about 5 seconds before rubbing dry (longer than 8-10 seconds can start to cook the apples, so don’t leave them in too long!).

Make sure the apples are fully dry before dipping as any amount of water will create bubbles in your coating.

Add skewers: Push or tap your skewers halfway into the top of your dried apples and set aside.

How to make candy apples:

Prepare your pan: Prepare a sheet pan or parchment paper sprayed with nonstick spray or butter so you’ll be able to remove the apples easily once cooled.

Cook your coating: Add the sugar, water, corn syrup, and food coloring to a saucepan over medium heat. Stir together and bring to a boil with a candy thermometer clipped to your pot (make sure it’s not touching the bottom of the pot or it won’t be an accurate read).

Bring coating up to 300°: Let the mixture boil for about 15-20 minutes until it reaches between 300°-310°. Remove the coating from the heat and allow the bubbles to settle down for a minute until smooth.

Dip your apples: Working quickly, tilt your pan to the side and dip an apple in the coating, swirling the apple to get each side coated. Pull the apple out and let the excess drip off before placing on a sheet pan or parchment paper.

If the candy coating starts to harden before you are done dipping all your apples, put it back on medium heat until it thins out again.

Let cool: Once all your apples are dipped, let the coating harden (it just takes a few minutes) and your apples are ready to eat! Remember, candy apples have a hard sticky coating, so eat with caution!

Tips for Making Candy Apples

• Use organic apples if you can since some companies don’t use wax on their apples so you don’t have to try to remove it. Or use apples from a local orchard that doesn’t wax their apples.

• Make sure your sugar reaches the 300° mark or the coating won’t harden and it will be more of a taffy texture.

• Try and keep the candy shell thin when you dip; it doesn’t need to be super thick and will be harder to eat.

• You can make your candy apples a color other than red if you want! Just remember the color of the apple comes through a bit and may muddle your final color depending on what shade you pick, but purple or black for Halloween is fun!

What the best way to clean your pot after making candy apples?

Now that you candy apples are made, you may be staring at your pot thinking “now how am I ever going to clean that?!” It’s actually pretty easy!

• Fill your pot with water.
• Boil the water on the stove stirring every so often.
• Once the candy leftover is dissolved, pour the water out and the hardened sugar is gone!

If you have some sugar up on the sides of your pot above the boiling water line, just use a spatula to keep pulling up some of the hot water over that spot until it starts to dissolve.

You can also dip your thermometer into the water as it boils to remove any hardened candy for the tip of that as well.