Are you craving candy apples right now? I have a special treat for you to enjoy with all those apples you recently picked! These aren’t your childhood candy apples, these blackberry jalapeno candy apples are the sweet & spicy treats perfect for Halloween. You know I love spicing things up around here and while I loved the shiny, bright red candy apples I had growing up, I wanted to finally make my own version using blackberry puree. At first I though I use beet juice to get a nice red color but Halloween is around the corner and thought a darker, reddish color would be great. The blackberry jalapeno candy turned out amazingly well. Figuring out how to eat the candy apple was something else! ha!
I forgot how sticky and hard these candy apples can get and how difficult they are to eat! I guess my teeth were stronger then or I just didn’t care but eating them now was challenging. However, I loved the spicy blackberry jalapeno flavor so much I may include them in my lollipops collection. All in all, this was a fun weekend project and can really see the kiddos enjoying these. If you decide to make them, make sure you use a candy thermometer as the candy can easily burn. I didn’t have the right thermometer when I made these and used the ice water method to determine if candy was ready. See tips below for more details.
Candy Apple Making Tips:
- Use a candy thermometer
- If you don’t have a candy thermometer, test to see if candy is ready (reaches 300 degrees – hard crack stage) by using the ice water method. While candy is cooking, fill a bowl with ice water and drop a bit of candy in bowl a drop at a time. If the candy is soft after being in the icy water, it’s not ready. Wait a few minutes and test again. When the drop of candy in water feels hard, it’s has reached the hard crack stage and candy is ready.
- Cut the candy apple into wedges to make it easier to eat.
- Instead of tajin, use shredded coconut, shredded toasted coconut, crushed peanuts or almonds.
- Instead of dipping entire apple, use a spoon to drizzle over apples instead for an interesting effects. This may make it easier to bite into them.
- Adjust the spicy level my using more or less peppers. Don’t want spicy apples (why would you want that! :-)), leave out peppers
- Use mitts, preferably high temperature oven mitts to handle pots. You can get serious burn marks if any candy lands on your skin.
- Don’t have cream of tartar? Use 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of light corn syrup and 1/4 cup of blackberry mixture.
- Want other sweet & spicy treats to try this Fall? Check out my Pepitas & Almond Brittle
Blackberry Jalapeno Candy Apples
Ingredients
- 4 Medium Green apples
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup spicy blackberry mixture
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- 2 tbsp Tajin
- 4 wooden sticks
Blackberry Jalapeno Mix
- 1/2 cup blackberry juice concentrate or frozen pulp
- 1 jalapeno sliced
Instructions
- Add blackberry concentrate/puree and1/2 cup of water to small pot on high heat, add sliced jalapeno and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Let cool.
- In a separate heavy bottom or copper pot, add sugar, blackberry mixture (strain the jalapenos) and cream of tartar. Stir until sugar dissolves and mixture starts to boil. At this point do not stir any further. Wash down the inside of the pot with a wet brush to dissolve any sugar crystals formed on the sides of pot.
- While sugar is cooking. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, sprinkle the tajin on the sheet and spread out evenly. Use more if you need more coverage. This will be where you rest the apples and will prevent the apples from sticking to parchment paper. Insert sticks into apples.
- Cook sugar to 300 degrees and immediately remove from heat. Let cool for a couple of minutes.
- Dip apples one at a time into the candy mixture and place it on the tajin. You can also try spooning candy over apples. If candy starts to thicken, heat it up again so its easier to cover the apples. Be very careful, candy is super hot.
- Let candy cool for about 10 minutes and enjoy.
What if I can’t find blackberry can I use another flavor
Hi Corina, yes of course. You can use pomegranate, strawberry juice, or cherry juice. I used blackberry because the color is rich and dark and also didn’t want to use any food coloring. The lighter the juice, the lighter the candy color – if you don’t mind food coloring you can always add red food dye drops to mixture after it reaches temperature.