Homemade Candied Apples

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   Gather all your ingredients. If you can, use homegrown apples from the garden, but store-bought are fine too. Any variety works, though firmer apples hold up best. You can swap the regular sugar for cane sugar if you like, and the lemon juice for 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid.

2. Step 2:

   

   Wash the fresh apples well, pat them dry, and — without peeling — cut them into whatever shape you prefer: rounds, sticks, wedges, or thin slices. Cut out the cores so you won't bite into any seeds later.

3. Step 3:

   

   If you're making candied apples to decorate cakes, pastries, or other baked goods, you can slice them crosswise right through the core, seed pod and all.

4. Step 4:

   

   Make the sugar syrup. Pour the water into a pot, add the sugar and lemon juice, set it over the heat, and bring to a boil. Let it boil for another 5–7 minutes.

5. Step 5:

   

   Once the syrup has boiled, add the apple pieces, lower the heat to a minimum, and cook them gently for 5 minutes. Then take the pot off the heat and let the syrup cool completely at room temperature — about 3–4 hours.

6. Step 6:

   

   Repeat this cook-and-cool cycle 4–5 times. By the time the apples have been through all the cycles, they'll have turned translucent while keeping their firmness — they shouldn't fall apart. Drain the candied apple pieces in a colander and let the excess syrup run off, which takes about another 2 hours.

7. Step 7:

   

   Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange the apple pieces on it in a single layer. Put the sheet in an oven preheated to 200°F (100°C) and dry the candied fruit for 2–2½ hours. Then move the pieces to fresh parchment, flipping them over, and continue drying at the same temperature for another 2–2½ hours.