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Recipe Swap - Autumn treat: Give apples a sweet coat

By Michael Hastings

JOURNAL FOOD EDITOR

Published: September 23, 2009

Fall has just arrived, and it's prime time for caramel apples. Use some fresh local apples in this treat.

Caramel Apples

Recipe adapted from The Good Home Cookbook (Collectors Press, 2006) edited by Richard J. Perry.

10 to 12 medium tart apples, such as Granny Smith or Rome Beauty

10 to 12 craft or Popsicle sticks

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 cup corn syrup

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Remove stems from apples. Wash and pat dry. Insert a craft stick into the bottom of each apple, running up through the stem end without protruding all the way through the top. Line a baking sheet with wax paper, stand the apples on it, stick side up, and set aside.

2. Combine the brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and condensed milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the sugar dissolves, stirring constantly.

3. Bring to a boil and continue to boil, without stirring, until the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage, 234 degrees on a candy thermometer. Add the vanilla and continue to cook to 238 degrees.

4. Remove the mixture from the heat. Quickly dip each apple, one at a time, into the mixture, swirling until thoroughly coated. Set the coated apples, standing on their tops with the sticks pointing up, on the baking sheet.

5. Refrigerate until the coating hardens, and serve.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Help

□ Caroline Schock of Boonville would like the fruitcake recipe that Beth Tartan, the Winston-Salem Journal's former food editor, printed in her Best Recipes of 1974 booklet.

□ Galove Robertson would like a recipe for coconut custard pie similar to the kind served at K&W Cafeteria.

Send requests or recipes to Recipe Swap, c/o Michael Hastings, Food Editor, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102; or e-mail to mhastings@wsjournal.com. Please include name, address and a daytime telephone number. Previously published recipes are available in the Recipe Database at www.journalnow.com/swap.