Toffee apples

• 6 small Cox’s apples
• 250 g caster sugar
• 100 ml

Snap the stalks off each apple and ram a chopstick into the bottom of each, halfway up into the fruit. Lay a piece of baking paper on a flat work surface, then put the sugar with the water in a medium-sized saucepan over a medium heat and bring up to a brisk simmer. It’s essential that the pan is clean and there are no foreign bodies in the bottom of it, as the sugar will crystalise instead of