Exploding toffee apples

Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Peel the top half of the apples as evenly as you can, leaving the bottom unpeeled. Place the apples upside-down on top of the tray and push a wooden chopstick into each one, through the core.

For the caramel, place the caster sugar in a heavy-based pan with 2 tablespoons of water and the golden syrup and place over a medium heat. Using a sugar thermometer, bring the caramel up to 140˚C. If you don’t have a sugar thermometer, cook the sugar and water until it becomes a shiny, medium dark brown caramel. Hot sugar is very dangerous in contact with little hands, so keep safe when doing this.

Once the caramel reaches 140˚C, to avoid the caramel from colouring further, put the base of the pan into cold water for a few seconds. Take care not to splash any water into the caramel.

Leave to rest but don’t let the caramel cool all the way through, as you will need to be able to dip the apples into it.

Tip the popping candy into a small bowl. Carefully dip the tip of each apple into the caramel to completely cover the flesh, and then dip the apples with the caramel into the popping candy.

Place the toffee apples onto the non-stick baking paper and leave them to harden before serving.