Pommes d’Amour (Candy Apples)

The only reason I made pommes d’amour with my cherubs is because Juliet begged me to do the recipe from her cookbook. And as I had been neglecting my children lately, I owed them big-time.

I also made them because I got suckered into buying (for the second time) a basket of pink lady apples from guys who come from Normandy with a truck-full every year. It’s really not all that advantageous in price and I’m usually hard-pressed to find space for them. Here they are in the garage.

Munch munch (for the next year or so).

Anyhoo, pommes d’amour – which means love apples – are quite simple to make so I’m sharing the recipe with you. I ended up using this one because I preferred it to my daughter’s recipe, which calls for butter. That would give it more of a caramel aspect, and less of that red candy crunch.

But before I get on to the recipe, see the flowering plum tree from my kitchen window?

This is why I painted my kitchen pink, even though it only last a couple of weeks.

I just wanted to share my view with you.

Okay, recipe time. You’ll need to wash, dry thoroughly and stick a wooden stick in the core of the apple. It must be well-dried or the coating won’t stick. Prepare a baking sheet, covered with buttered wax paper.

The original recipe calls for 6 apples, but there is more than enough coating for 8.

Now, put 2.5 cups of sugar in a saucepan with 6 tablespoons water, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and between 10 and 20 drops of red food colouring, depending on how garish you want it. I used 17 drops, but my sugar was non-refined brown sugar, so it had less of that bright red aspect.

Mix it well, before you put the heat on, because once it starts cooking you cannot stir it or it won’t caramelise.

If you have a thermometer you’ll know the mixture is done when it reaches 150°C (about 300°F). I did use a thermometer, but somewhere around 128°C, my thermometer melted. So uh . . .

But I was able to figure out when it was done. First of all, you can count on its cooking about 20 minutes or so. High heat at first, and when it starts bubbling, turn it down to low.

And when it’s ready, the colour will change a bit, which is harder to spot when there is food colouring. It becomes caramel-coloured. And it smells good. Don’t delay in taking it off the heat at this point, because once the sugar burns there is no turning back.

Add 2 more teaspoons of lemon juice, which will have the immediate effect of stopping the cooking and reducing the mixture.

Then you’re ready to dip the apples.

When thoroughly coated, place them on the wax paper.

They will be very hot. Don’t be tempted to taste the candy coating, no matter how delicious it smells. You might otherwise burn the roof of your mouth to the point where eating acidic ratatouille brings tears to your eyes. Not that I would know.

The apples cool quickly and can be eaten right away.

Instant satisfaction for both children and adults!

Also, a word to the wise. Don’t be tempted to pour the excess coating on to the apples because you don’t want to waste it. This will result in them being way too hard to eat. Not that I would know about that or anything.

My husband said I should have a “kitchen disaster” section on my blog for all the mistakes I make during cooking. I told him my entire recipe page was a “kitchen disaster.”

But you, my friends, can hardly go wrong with pommes d’amour.

Speaking of amour, I wanted to give you some book news. First of all, I was honoured that the Queen Latifah show tweeted about my book! That was a real boost. But since every effort I’ve made to embed the tweet has resulted in the rest of my post disappearing, you will just have to take my word for it.

And this coming Thursday, A Lady in France will be featured on BonBon Break’s first online book club via twitter. The twitter chat will happen at 6PST, 9EST and 4AM (gulp) my time, and you can connect to it by following the hashtag #bonbonbooks. Will you let us know if you’re joining please? You can find more details here.

More on the love front, Hillary from No Pencils, Pens, Scissors or Knives has written a book review of my book. Hillary’s dad guest-posted on my blog a few years back on his first foray into Paris with his beautiful wife (Hillary’s mom). He came determined to be a sceptic, but left a converted romantic, charmed by his French idyll. You can read Part One here, and the link to Part Two is at the bottom of the page.

Hillary is no less of a romantic, and you can read my favourite post of hers here, which connects her love of Jane Austen to the story of her one true love.  Her review of my book is found here. Thank you so much, Hillary.

If you’d like more recipes, click here to see my recipe index.

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