Did you know that the first ‘toffee apple’ was made over a hundred years ago?
Attributed to American confectioner William W. Kolb, the first batch of candy apples (known as ‘toffee apples‘ in the UK), were created in 1908.
With their distinctive red, hardened sweet glaze, toffee apples have become an autumnal food favourite. But this signature look and taste came about by accident! Kolb was experimenting with a red cinnamon sugar syrup while attempting to create a new line of candies for the Christmas period, when he dipped (or dropped) an apple into the mixture and set it aside. The result was a glossy, crimson, sugar-encrusted bauble that captured the attention of his sweet toothed patrons. Kolb sold his first batch for five cents, and their popularity quickly grew as a fall treat.
The abundance of apples during the autumn harvest meant that the toffee [candy] apple quickly became a fall food favourite.
Despite their English name, there is no dairy to be found in these ‘toffee apples‘. Toffee traditionally refers to the process of boiling sugar. The first reference to a ‘toffee apple‘ in print was in 1917, when it appeared in a Christmas edition of the B.E.F Times – a newspaper for British soldiers deployed to the trenches of WWI. But the term ‘toffee apple’ was most likely in verbal circulation long before then.
Whether you eat them for Halloween, Bonfire Night, or all autumn-round; or call them a ‘candy‘ apple, or a ‘toffee‘ apple…I think we can all agree that they make one tasty treat…and will inevitably will rip fillings from your teeth, or get stuck in your hair!
Who thinks we can market these as ‘toffee apple baubles‘ and have them during Christmas too?
The British Candy Connoisseur 