Candy apple

Candy apples, also known as toffee apples outside of North America, are whole apples covered in a hard toffee or sugar candy coating, with a stick inserted as a handle. These are a common treat at autumn festivals in Western culture in the Northern Hemisphere, such as Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night because these festivals fall in the wake of the annual apple harvest. Although candy apples and caramel apples may seem similar, they are made using distinctly different processes.

History

According to one source, American William W. Kolb invented the red candy apple.

Ingredients and method

Candy apples are made by coating an apple with a layer of sugar that has been heated to a soft or hard crack stage (depending upon the type of sugar). The most common sugar coating is made from sugar (white or brown), corn syrup, water, cinnamon and red food coloring. Humid weather can prevent the sugar from hardening.

Regional traditions

Peter Combe

Peter Combe (born 20 October 1948) is an Australian children's entertainer and musician. Musical genre - Children's Music

He has had 22 releases, including seven gold albums, two platinum, three ARIA awards and one ARIA final nomination.

Some of his best-known songs are "Toffee Apple", "Spaghetti Bolognaise", "Mr Clicketty Cane", "Juicy Juicy Green Grass" and "Newspaper Mama".

Biography

Peter Combe was born in Adelaide on 20 October 1948, the third of four children. His early influences growing up in the '50s were The Springfields, from whom he discovered the joy of harmony, learning the ability to harmonise from an early age. He was inspired by the folk singers of the 1960s like Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. He formed his own folk group and taught himself to play guitar. Later on, he became fascinated by the music of The Beatles and Billy Joel.

Peter studied to become a primary school teacher, and first started as a classroom teacher in 1969. Soon he became a specialist music teacher. During this time he started writing songs for his students to sing, and from this start he wrote several 'operettas' for his classes to perform to their parents. One of the early ones was Bows Against The Barons, based on the Geoffrey Trease novel set in the time of Robin Hood. Later the song Robin Hood's Dream was to appear on the album Newspaper Mama.

Apple

The apple tree (Malus domestica) is a deciduous tree in the rose family best known for its sweet, pomaceous fruit, the apple. It is cultivated worldwide as a fruit tree, and is the most widely grown species in the genus Malus. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found today. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe, and were brought to North America by European colonists. Apples have religious and mythological significance in many cultures, including Norse, Greek and European Christian traditions.

Apple trees are large if grown from seed, but small if grafted onto roots (rootstock). There are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples, resulting in a range of desired characteristics. Different cultivars are bred for various tastes and uses, including cooking, eating raw and cider production. Apples are generally propagated by grafting, although wild apples grow readily from seed. Trees and fruit are prone to a number of fungal, bacterial and pest problems, which can be controlled by a number of organic and non-organic means. In 2010, the fruit's genome was decoded as part of research on disease control and selective breeding in apple production.