Toffee apples need a cool head and no children at the pan

Toffee apples are the sweet I make once a year, for the Halloween weekend. They look like something from an old fair, shiny and dark red, and everyone wants one. They are also the most dangerous thing I cook all autumn, because the toffee is far hotter than boiling water. So I make them in a quiet kitchen, with the children out of the room, and I hand them out only when the toffee is cold and hard.

The apples come first. I choose small, firm, crisp apples, the kind that fit in a child's hand. Shop apples often have a thin coating of wax, and toffee slides straight off wax. So I put the apples in a bowl, pour over water from a just-boiled kettle, leave them for half a minute, then lift them out and dry them very well with a clean tea towel. Any water left on the skin makes the toffee spit and bubble.

I pull out the stalks and push a wooden skewer or a short stick firmly into the top of each apple, deep enough that it will hold the weight. I lay a sheet of baking parchment on a tray, and I stand the apples next to it so everything is ready. Once the toffee is done, there is no time to look for anything.

For six or eight small apples I use 400 g of white caster sugar, 100 ml of water, a teaspoon of white wine vinegar and two tablespoons of golden syrup. Some people add a few drops of red food colouring; I sometimes do, sometimes not. I put everything into a heavy pan and warm it gently, stirring, until the sugar has completely dissolved. After that I stop stirring.

Then I turn up the heat and let it boil. A sugar thermometer makes this easy: the toffee is ready at 150°C, which is called the hard crack stage. Without a thermometer, I drop a little into a glass of cold water. If it sets at once into a hard, brittle thread that snaps, it is ready. If it is soft and bendy, it needs longer.

This is the moment that needs a cool head. Sugar at 150°C sticks to skin and keeps burning. I keep the children out of the kitchen, I wear an oven glove on the hand that holds the pan, and I never lean over it. I tilt the pan a little and turn each apple in the toffee quickly, let the extra drip off, and stand it on the parchment. If the toffee thickens before I finish, I warm it again gently.

If anyone does get hot sugar on their skin, the NHS advice is to cool the burn under cool or lukewarm running water for 20 minutes, and not to use ice, butter or creams. A large or deep burn, or any burn on a small child, needs medical help.

The apples need about 15 minutes to set hard. I check that the toffee is completely cold before anyone touches it. Hard toffee is tough on teeth, so I warn people to bite carefully, and for small children I cut the apple off the stick into slices and break off small pieces of toffee, so nobody is walking around with a stick in their mouth.

Toffee apples are best eaten the same day. The toffee draws moisture from the air and turns sticky, so I make them in the afternoon for the evening. Leftover toffee in the pan comes off easily: I fill the pan with water and bring it to the boil, and the sugar melts away.

Toffee apples. Makes 6–8. About 40 minutes plus setting. You need 6–8 small firm apples, 400 g caster sugar, 100 ml water, 1 tsp white wine vinegar and 2 tbsp golden syrup. Dip the apples in just-boiled water to remove wax, dry well and push in sticks. Dissolve the sugar with the water, vinegar and syrup, then boil without stirring to 150°C. Dip and turn each apple, stand on parchment and leave to set until cold.

Do you make toffee apples, or do you leave them to the fair?