Love Apples (Candy Apples) or Pears

It doesn't often occur that one can make at home and in about 2 min (ok... maybe 3!) the sweet love apples (yes love apples is a much nicer name than candy apples so I will use that) that you can find in fairs and that children are so fond of... and it's a shame!! To remedy to this, here is a recipe that will make the whole family happy (but not their teeth).

Before starting, the following are required so make sure you have:

• glucose syrup (order it off amazon if you don't know where to find it). This is the necessary ingredient. It is used to delay the sugar's crystallization and also to give the elasticity of the caramel.  
• solid wooden sticks about 15cm long. Consider that you will stick an apple on those and they're heavy so you need to have something sturdy. BBQ sticks usually work well.
• parchment paper (or you'll never get the apples off of any other surface)
• red food coloring (or another color if you prefer)
• little transparent plastic bags

Time it takes:

• 5 min to prepare
• 10 min to cook
• 30 min to cool down

Material:

• wooden sticks
• a large plate 
• parchment paper
• a big pot

Ingredients:

• 6 Granny Smith apples (use other apples and it will be gross) OR 6 Alexander Lucas pears
• 400g (2 cups) sugar
• maximum 100g (3.5oz) glucose syrup (DO NOT put more than that, if you do the caramel will be so elastic it will stick to your teeth and it will be impossible to eat)
• 1 lemon
• red food coloring

Calories per love apple/pear : 400 kCal (ouch!!)

Recipe:

• Wash the apples.
• Remove their stem.
• Insert the wooden stick in the apple and make sure it's well in! 

• Cover your big plate with parchment paper and arrange the apples on it. Make sure the plate is big enough that no apple touches another. If the plate is not big enough, take two plates!

• In a big pot, pour the glucose syrup, the lemon juice, and the sugar.

• Heat up the previous mix until it boils. Don't forget to stir from time to time. It will reach boiling point really fast so stay nearby! Once it boils, it will look like a whitish syrup.
• When the syrup starts coloring a bit, remove the pot from the heat.

• Add up a few drops of food coloring. Watch out, there can be some projections! You now have a nice red caramel.
• Immediately, roll the apples over in the caramel and lay them on the parchment paper covered plate.

• If you did not manage to coat the apples well and you can still see some green spots, at the end you can just pour the rest of the caramel on top of the apples to mask the green.

• Wait 30min that the caramel has cooled down completely and that it hardened on the apples.

• Put each apple in a little plastic bag and close it at the top. 
• Keep in the fridge (like that the caramel never starts to melt again).