Fragrant apples covered with frozen caramel are an amazingly tasty and beautiful delicacy. Caramel can be either golden brown or red. Simple ingredients, simple culinary manipulations - and you can please your loved ones with an interesting dessert. Children will be especially happy!
This dessert is traditional for home cooking in the United States and Great Britain. Caramelized apples are considered an autumn-winter treat and are prepared for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Guy Fawkes Day, and Christmas. This tradition is connected with the season of apple picking and the possibilities of their storage. But now apples can be bought at any time of the year, so you can cook this sweet whenever you want.
To make dessert you will need:
- apples - 5 pcs.;
- sugar (preferably brown) - 1 tbsp.;
- table vinegar - 1 tsp;
- butter - 1 tbsp. l.;
- water - 110 ml (slightly less than half a glass);
- wooden skewers - 5 pcs.;
- wax paper for baking - 1 sheet.
Sour and hard apples are the best choice. For example, Granny Smith, Cox's ranetki. But this is not necessary: there are also lovers of sweet apples in caramel. You can use the sweet variety by sprinkling the apples with lemon juice.
Prepare classic apples in caramel as follows. Place a large pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. Washed apples should be strung on skewers, piercing the fruit from the stalk to the center.
Dip the apples in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then remove and pat dry with a napkin or paper towel. (This procedure is needed to dissolve the natural wax on the peel, which will allow the caramel to stick better to the apples. But you can just wash the apples thoroughly, the main thing is to dry them well).
Stir the sugar and water in a small saucepan (it is best to use a ladle with a handle). Put on fire and wait until the sugar is completely dissolved. Reduce heat. Put butter and vinegar in the boiled syrup. Simmer the syrup over reduced heat for 8-12 minutes. Don't forget to stir! As a result, the water will gradually boil away, and you will get a viscous caramel.
Now dip the apples on the skewers into the boiling caramel. Proceed quickly but carefully: the caramel can spray hot splashes. It is best to tilt the pan (which is why a ladle with a handle is the most convenient), lower the apple into caramel and wrap it around the axis a couple of times. Spread the finished treats on wax paper to set.
Want to play with flavors? Add ½ teaspoon of cinnamon to the caramel along with the vinegar and butter. For acid, you can add a spoonful of lemon juice. And for the red color, food coloring is added to the caramel.
After the caramelized apples are cooked, they can be wrapped in wax paper, wrapped like a lollipop, and tied tightly. For two - three days, such "sweets" can be stored in the refrigerator, and with the onset of the holiday - handed out as tasty souvenirs.
There is also a recipe for apples in caramel in the East. It is slightly different from the western one. The Chinese do not cook caramelized apples whole, but cut into slices (quarters or eighths). The peel is peeled off, and the apples are sprinkled with lemon juice so as not to darken. Then, in a bowl, mix 100 g of flour and 15 g of starch. Separately mix 150 ml of milk and three proteins. This mixture is poured into flour, everything is mixed.
Having rolled the apple slices in this mixture, you need to deep-fry them and transfer them to a paper napkin. Caramel is prepared in the usual way, but a tablespoon of sesame is added to it. Apples are dipped into this sweet mass. And immediately you need to dip the apple slices in ice water so that the caramel instantly hardens.
