I have been playing around with this concept all day. Toffee apples remind me of my childhood. My favourite part was always the toffee though and I could never get through a whole apple after tackling all that toffee. So I have done bite sized toffee fruits.
I tried melon this morning which was an epic fail. I also tried using brown sugar for the toffee….another epic fail. When I was a professional chef I made loads of toffee but it’s been a while and this is my 1st attempt in years.
Well another trip to the supermarket to get different fruits, 4 wasted cups of organic brown sugar and a lot of pot watching later, I have cracked the jackpot.
They look so beautiful on the platter. It was hard to really capture just how beautiful. They would be a great “petit four” at a dinner party.
YOU NEED
a collection of Medjool dates, giant red grapes, green grapes and strawberries.
4 cups of white castor sugar
1 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
1/3-1/4 cup of sesame seeds
YOU DO
Pop the sesame seeds into a small deep dish and place next to your stove top.
Lay out a sheet of baking paper on your bench next to the stove top and the dish of sesame seeds.
Spike all your fruits all with a small bamboo skewer. Be careful now because the more you move them now, the more likely you are to make the whole for the skewer to big and the fruit will drop off.
Bring the sugar and water to the boil in a small pot, until all the sugar has dissolved. Using a wet pastry brush gently brush the sides of the pot.Try not to touch the sugar and water mix with the brush.
Once the sugar mix comes to the boil add the cream of tartar and turn heat down to a low simmer.
Simmer till the toffee becomes “hard crack”. This feels like a millennium. As the toffee gets closer DONT walk away from it. You can tell if its hard crack when you dip a teaspoon into the toffee and then let toffee from the spoon drip into a cup of ice water and when you pull the toffee out of the water it cracks and doesn’t bend. (If you don’t push the toffee to this point it will be extremely chewy and difficult to eat. If you push the toffee too hard though it will start to get too brown and from there will rapidly turn black.) Just keep an eye on it when it starts to colour and turn the heat off as soon as it gets to a “hard crack”. If you think you are close, carefully dip one of your fruits, let it cool and see if the toffee cracks when you bite it.
Once the toffee is ready, dip the fruit into it, one at a time until all of the fruit is covered in toffee. Scrape the excess toffee off from the fruit on the edge of the pot and sip into the sesame seeds. Set aside on the baking paper and repeat process until all your sesame toffee fruits are done and serve.
This is a cheap recipe with only a few ingredients. Just don’t be afraid to tackle toffee. It’s a rewarding outcome. A plateful of glossy, sweet, sesame fruit 🙂
Servings: Varies depending on what fruit you use, what size it is and how much toffee you use before it gets too hard to work with. I ended up with a decent size platter of toffee fruit bites though.
Time: Have not yet timed
Freezing: Not suitable for freezing.
Notes: Caution this is NOT a dish to do with the kids. Toffee is extremely dangerous. At no point dip your finger into the toffee. If a piece of fruit falls in, use a spoon to get it out and discard it.
