This recipe makes an amber-colored syrup, so you’ll be able to see the true colors — red, green, or yellow — of the apples you dip in it. If you want a richer caramel apple, you’ll add cream to the recipe.

Steps

1. Stir the sugar, corn syrup, water or cider, vanilla, and cinnamon together in a medium-size, high-sided pot. Let the mixture cook, without stirring, over high heat until it reaches the hard-crack candy stage (300 to 310 degrees).
2. While the syrup is cooking, wash, dry, and de-stem the apples. Grease a large piece of foil and place it on a cookie sheet so that you’ll have a place to put the apples to dry once you’ve dipped them.
3. Take the pot off the stove the very minute the syrup reaches the hard-crack stage, otherwise the syrup will burn. Let cool for five minutes.
4. Plunge a Popsicle stick into each apple in the place where the stem used to be. Dip the apples until they are completely coated. Tilt the pot if necessary to make the syrup deep enough to cover the apples.
5. Let the apples dry and cool for a few minutes. Then shake some of the large-grained sugar on the “shoulders” of the apples for garnish.