The kids are back at school and Autumn on the way. We are hurtling towards Halloween and harvest time. This time of year always gets me thinking about something delicious from my childhood days, Toffee Apples.
When I was young my Nan lived in a street on the edge of a housing estate. If you walked to the end of the street and through an entry way between two houses, you would find yourself in a field. Not just one field but lots of them, rolling off into the distance. Upon discovery, and many miles of walking there were all sorts of delights to be found, cows, sheep, an old church, a reservoir, bluebell woods, beech trees and a lot more. But today I’m talking about the apple trees that lined one of the fields.
Nan would send us scrumping over the fields. Now, I didn’t realise at the time what scrumping actually was, apart from going to collect apples. Of course the very act of scrumping means to steal the apples. I was a very conscientious child and would probably not have taken part if I’d know we were taking the apples illegally. I was going because I was doing what I was told and because it was fun! We went every year and never got so much as a telling off. Did the farmer even notice his apples missing? Did he care? If we went back later there would be loads of rotting apples lying beneath the trees and I used to wish we’d been back to take more while they were edible.
So, me and my cousins would go to the field and they boys would climb the trees and shake off the apples. The girls would pick up as many as they could, often using our skirts as carriers. Then we would hurry back to Nan who would be waiting with her big pot of toffee.
Nan would make the toffee in a huge iron pan, loads of sugar and a big tin of golden syrup. She would stir it constantly with a big wooden spoon. We would butter trays for the apples, she always had loads to hand. She also had loads of twigs that we’d brought back along with our apples. The washed apples would have a twig stuck inside then Nan would dip each one into the toffee and place them upside down on the trays. We would end up with loads of gorgeous sticky toffee apples, what a treat. We didn’t eat them all ourselves though, there was plenty to go around so we’d take them into the street and share them with the neighbours.
I always looked forward to Nan’s toffee apples. They would be left with a buttery film from the trays which tasted delicious against the toffee.
Toffee Apple Recipes
With my mind full of these delicious (ill gotten) treats I have decided to look up some lovely toffee apple inspired recipes to share with you.
I love this idea from Fussy Eater, she has noted that a whole toffee apple can be too much for little mouths, so she came up with Toffee Apple Slices. Apple slices, dipped in chocolate and drizzled with a toffee sauce, sounds delicious.
The lovely Eatz Amazing has several apple recipes but I particularly liked her Unicorn Chocolate Apples.
I’ve also done a toffee apple recipe myself, but of course, it had to be a Toffee Apple and Pecan Cake.
I love apple and cinnamon together and you can find this marriage in The Crazy Kitchen’s Toffee Apple Cinnamon Bun Rings.
Apple Crumble has always been a desert favourite of mine and A Mummy Too has made one with toffee too. Yes it’s a Toffee Apple Crumble delight.
Finally, if you are gluten free then the Free From Fairy has a delicious gluten free Spiced Toffee Apple Traybake that you will love.
Have you ever made toffee apples, or even chocolate coated apples? I really have the urge to make some apple inspired deserts now.
Sweet memories – love apples and toffee apples sound wonderful. #MMBC
Ahh! What a wonderful memory to have…I haven’t had a toffee apple for years…I do buy my girls them now and again in the Autumn but we’ve never tried making our own. I think we will have to.
I will confess that I’ve not actually had a toffee apple since I lost a veneer biting into one. The ones my Nan made would have probably pulled your teeth out rather than a veneer! I’m thinking of making some chocolate apples with my kids though.
I have fond memories of going scrumping myself! I am not a fan of toffee apples but the recipes you have shared sound like a lovely alternative. #mmbc
Your story is so rich in community spirit. What a lovely memory. With all our apples, it is almost surprising that I’ve never made toffee apples. I like the sound of your toffee apple and pecan cake. #MMBC
I love toffee apples perfect for the autumn season X #mmbc
These look so yum. I must try x #MixItUp
For the longest time, I thought cinnamon candy apples where the only kind of taffy apple there was and now I miss them but I don’t miss what they can do to your teeth. I bet toffee apples are just as delicious and dangerous. I’m going to have to try at least one of these recipes, mm, fall.
What wonderful memories you have of your gran. A wooden spoon, lots of sugar and constantly stirring are still the way to go. The space between buildings leading to a field sounds magical.
I love your scrumping story and the recipes sound amazing! I’m off to look at some of them now! #BlogCrush
I love any cake or pudding with apples in, so will definitely be trying out some of your recipies
#blogcrush
me too! My apple cake is delicious, even if I do say so myself 🙂
What a lovely memory! A bit of scrumping never hurt anyone. 😉 We’ve just picked a load of apples from our trees so I will be baking a crumble today.
Thanks for sharing with #MMBC. x
Mmmm toffee apples! Thank you for sharing such a great selection of recipes #blogcrush
Oh thanks so much for this, I get very nostalgic about toffee apples and we have an apple tree so will definitely be using one of these recipes this year! #blogcrush
These sounds so fun, especially compared to the ‘same old thing’ we’ve all come to see in the stores. #BlogCrush
My aunty had an apple tree and so every year we spent a day in her garden picking the tree. Apple recipes are still some of my favourites! xx
These look like a little slice of heaven!!! #blogcrush
I love the nortalgia in this post. Even the fact you used twigs to hold the apples. None of this shop bought, specially designed sticks. When I was in my last year of primary school, so 10/11 years old, we had the most epic teacher. She brought in her own bite to help us all make toffee apples in class. It was the best and so off the cuff. No permission was sought. Could you imagine that happening nowadays!
Love this.
#BlogCrush
That was a lovely teacher, I’m glad I’ve inspired your memory.
I love how beautifully you described your childhood memory of scrumping apples. Pinning this delicious recipe! #BlogCrush
I can’t believe how quickly this year has passed us by! I love the term scrumping, free food courtesy of mother nature is always the best food and toffee apple is a match made in heaven.
Love these ideas, I’ve not had toffee apples for a long time but now I really want to try some of these out #blogcrush
I love the nostalgia coming through in this pot and such gorgeous storytelling. I think I’ll be a very popular mum if I test out some of these recipes!! Congratulations on being a featured post on #BlogCrush this week .
I’ve never made toffee apples. I imagine it would be a lot of fun and also a lot of mess!
We have a ton of apples as we have an apple tree in the garden, I think I have done most things you can do with apples but not made a toffee apple crumble yet
Oh, I love this post. Where your nan lived sounds wonderful. Nothing like scrumping and making toffee apples. They always remind me of a neighbour we had as she’d always tell my mum to send us over and she’d give us toffee apples and coke floats etc. xxx