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A tray of shiny red toffee apples on wooden sticks
Photo: Public Domain Photos (publicphoto.org), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (cropped)

Desserts

Toffee Apples

Crisp eating apples on sticks, dipped in glassy red toffee made from sugar, water, golden syrup and a little vinegar, boiled to the hard-crack stage (about 150°C). A Bonfire Night favourite. The sugar gets very hot, so read the safety notes and keep children back from the pan.

  • Serves 8
  • Makes 8
  • Hands-on 30 min
  • Set 20 min
  • Best on the day
  • You need: sugar thermometer, 8 lolly sticks
  • British

Hot sugar safety ↓

Apples, bonfires and hard crack: a little history ↓

Method

  1. Before you start: the toffee reaches about 150°C, far hotter than boiling water, and it sticks to skin. Keep children and pets away from the hob while it cooks and while you dip, wear long sleeves, and put a bowl of cold water next to the hob in case of splashes.

  2. Put the 8 apples apples in a large heatproof bowl, cover them with just-boiled water from the kettle and leave for 1–2 minutes. This takes off the waxy coating so the toffee sticks. Lift them out and dry them very well: any wax or water stops the toffee setting on the skin.

  3. Twist off the stalks and push a wooden lolly stick or skewer firmly into the stalk end of each apple, about halfway in but not right through. Line a tray with baking parchment and put it beside the hob with the apples.

  4. Put the 400 g of sugar and 100 ml of water in a deep, heavy-based saucepan (the syrup bubbles up a long way). Warm over a medium-low heat, stirring gently, only until the sugar has completely dissolved and the liquid is clear, about 5 minutes.

  5. Stir in the 1 tsp of vinegar and 4 tbsp of golden syrup, then clip a sugar thermometer to the side of the pan so its tip sits in the syrup without touching the bottom. Turn the heat up a little and boil without stirring (swirl the pan instead) until the thermometer reads 150°C (300°F), the hard-crack stage. This usually takes 10–15 minutes.

  6. No thermometer? Drop a little of the syrup from a teaspoon into a glass of cold water. At hard crack it sets at once into brittle threads that snap cleanly. If it bends or feels chewy, boil for another minute and test again.

  7. Take the pan off the heat and let the bubbles settle. Stir in the ½ tsp of red colouring, if you are using it, carefully, as it may spit.

  8. Tilt the pan and dip one apple at a time, twisting it by the stick until it is coated all over. Lift it out, let the excess drip back into the pan, then stand it stick-up on the parchment. Work quickly; if the toffee thickens before you have finished, warm it gently for a minute.

  9. Leave the toffee apples for at least 20 minutes, until the toffee has set hard and cooled completely, before anyone bites into one. To clean the pan, fill it with water and bring it to the boil to dissolve the leftover toffee.

Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.

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Hot sugar safety

  • Keep children and pets away: from the hob while the toffee boils and while you dip. Children can help with the sticks and toppings once the toffee has set.
  • Dress for it: long sleeves and an apron; use a deep, heavy pan so the syrup cannot boil over.
  • Never taste or touch hot toffee: it is about 150°C, much hotter than boiling water, and it sticks to skin.
  • If you are burned: hold the burn under cool running water for 20 minutes and do not pull off any set toffee. Call 999 or go to A&E for a large or deep burn, or one on the face (NHS).

See also

Chef’s notes

  • Sugar thermometer: check it first in a pan of boiling water, where it should read 100°C (212°F) at sea level. If it reads 2°C high or low, adjust the 150°C target by the same amount. A digital probe thermometer works just as well; keep the tip in the syrup, not touching the pan.
  • Why 150°C? The hard-crack stage runs from about 149°C to 154°C (300–310°F). By then almost all the water has boiled off, so the toffee sets hard and glassy. Stop short, at the soft-crack stage (about 132–143°C), and the coating stays chewy and sticks to your teeth. Take it much past 160°C and it starts to darken into caramel.
  • Hot sugar safety: never taste the toffee from the spoon or touch it while it is hot. If any lands on your skin, do not pull it off: hold the burn under cool running water for 20 minutes (NHS advice), and call 999 or go to A&E for a large or deep burn, or one on the face. Older children can push in the sticks and add toppings once the toffee has set; leave the boiling and dipping to an adult.
  • The vinegar (or lemon juice) and golden syrup both help stop the sugar crystallising, so the toffee stays clear and glossy instead of turning grainy.
  • Damp weather makes toffee go tacky. Store the apples in a cool, dry place, not the fridge, and eat them within a day or two. They are best on the day they are made.
  • For colour, gel colouring is the most concentrated and adds the least liquid. Without colouring the toffee is a clear golden amber.
  • Toppings: roll the freshly dipped apples in chopped toasted nuts or sprinkles before the toffee sets. Chocolate does not work: it melts on the hot toffee and slides off.

A little history

Toffee apples are whole apples on sticks coated in sugar boiled to the hard-crack stage. In North America the same thing is called a candy apple; BBC Good Food notes there is no real difference in ingredients or method.

In Britain they are eaten at Halloween and on Bonfire Night, and both fall just after the apple harvest. In parts of northern England treacle toffee was already a traditional Bonfire Night food in the 19th century, alongside parkin.

The hard-crack stage, about 149–154°C (300–310°F), is the last of the classic sugar-boiling stages used in sweet making before the syrup starts to turn to caramel. At that point the syrup holds very little water, which is why it sets into a hard, glassy shell instead of a chewy one.

Bonfire Night itself marks the failure of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament on 5 November 1605. Parliament says it is still the custom to let off fireworks and hold bonfire parties on or around that date.

Sources for these notes

For the history and the notes on this page.

How this recipe was developed

A new page for Bonfire Night. We compared the four recipes below and wrote our own, with a fuller sugar-thermometer guide and hot-sugar safety notes.

  • Sugar, water, syrup, a little acid. BBC Good Food and Daylesford both use 400 g sugar, 100 ml water, 4 tbsp golden syrup and 1 tsp vinegar for 8 apples; BBC Good Food’s candy apples use lemon juice. We use the same proportions; Felicity Cloake explains that the acid stops the sugar crystallising.
  • 150°C, the hard-crack stage. All four boil the toffee to 150°C and give the cold-water test for cooks without a thermometer. We add how to check the thermometer and why stopping at soft crack leaves the toffee chewy.
  • De-wax and dry. BBC Good Food pours boiling water over the apples to remove the wax; Cloake scrubs them in hot water. Both stress drying them well, as we do.
  • Colour last. BBC Good Food’s candy apples add the red colouring once the toffee is ready, off the heat. We do the same and make it optional.
  • Safety. Cloake advises long sleeves and never tasting hot sugar. We add the NHS burns advice and keep children to the jobs that do not involve the hot pan.

Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 1 November 2026):

This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.

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Shopping list for 8 portions

Fruit & veg

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Oils, vinegars & sauces

Store cupboard (check you have)