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I love the witching weather that rolls in this time of year. Those days when a chill comes over the air, when you wake up to low-hanging fog that gives way to eerie winds. That sense of the beyond, a mournful yearning for something you can’t remember that calls the magic to your skin in the form of goosebumps. You know they aren’t just from the cold: they are somehow a calling, a memory, a truth too deep to access. You are connected to ancient magic as the wind whips your hair and you feel at once all-powerful and completely alone. For those precious moments you remember on a visceral level that you are everlasting and connected to everything that has been and will be. 

Stay a few more moments in that heart wrenching, glorious, all-encompassing liminality. Feel the ancient magic of something you’ve forgotten live in your bones, in your chest. Embrace that restless unease, as well as the incredible electric magic dancing along your skin. You, my dear, are magic. The Witching Weather is here to remind you of that. You are more powerful than you know. 

When you’ve had your fill of existential euphoria, it’s time to come home into a cozy space filled with bubbling toffee and popping seeds and wild apples gathered during the storm. Hold onto the Witching Weather magic as you move throughout the day. Let it haunt you, just a bit. Leave space in your mind for it to wander through those grey skies (but do come down to earth while making the toffee - that does require your full attention.) 

Maple Toffee Apples With Popped Amaranth 

These autumnal treats could come right out of a fairytale - perhaps a more sinister one with a message of temptation and bubbling potion. These toffee apples glisten and sparkle as if by magic, calling you in to take one little magical bite. Will you risk it? 

These are an enchanting autumnal indulgence. Small crisp apples are coated in a hard toffee flavored with maple and a touch of balsamic vinegar, then dipped into puffed wild amaranth seeds for extra texture and a toasty flavor. Want to add a little extra magic? Mix in some food safe edible Tinker Dust  for apples that sparkle and entrance. 

Amaranth is a gluten-free grain rich in protein that was first cultivated by the Aztecs. Red amaranth makes a particularly beautiful garden plant, but can quickly take over a flower bed due to its proliferation of tiny, glossy black seeds. The good news? Harvesting those seeds gives you a delightful grain AND helps control the next year’s spread of amaranth plants. Just wait until the flowerheads are starting to dry and cut them into a large bowl. Shake them out really well. You’ll soon have a mixture of tiny seeds and some dried flower pieces. The next step is to winnow, or to remove those dried flowers from the seeds. I do this either outside when there’s a moderate breeze, or in front of a fan set to low. Just pick up a handful of the seeds and drop them back into the bowl below. The air will carry away the lighter dried flower parts. After a while, you’ll have a bowl of glossy black seeds ready to be popped and enjoyed. 

Ingredients: 

8 small apples

2 c. granulated sugar

½ c. corn syrup

¼ c. water

¼ tsp. Salt 

1 tsp. Balsamic vinegar 

½ tsp. Maple extract

½ tsp. Edible red glitter

¾ c. wild amaranth seeds 

Directions: 

1. Before you begin, you want to get everything prepped and ready since you’ll need to move quickly when the toffee is ready to go. 

2. Start by preparing your apples. Wild apples will need to be washed, and store-bought apples should be rinsed well with very hot water to remove the wax, then dried with a towel. Get your apple sticks ready to go, too. I used wild branches but you could use store-bought ones instead. Just make sure one end is sharp enough to stick into the top of each apple. (And if using wild sticks, make sure you are careful not to use anything poisonous, like hemlock stems!) 

3. Prepare your puffed amaranth seeds. Heat a small heavy-bottomed saucepan with a lid over medium heat until a drop of water dropped into it forms a ball and bounces around. Then add 1 tsp. Amaranth seeds, cover, and start shaking the pan over the heat. You should hear little popping sounds almost immediately. After 10-15 seconds (or when the sounds have mostly stopped), quickly pour the seeds out onto a cool plate. Use a heat-proof paintbrush to make sure they all get out. Move quickly, since these tiny seeds can go from puffed to burned in a matter of seconds! (That’s also why you need to pop small quantities at a time.) You’ll want a bowl full of puffed seeds. 

4. Prepare your work area: Set out the toffee ingredients by the stove (including the maple extract and edible glitter), along with a candy thermometer. Nearby, have your apples with sticks in them, the bowl of popped amaranth, and a non-stick baking sheet or piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. 

5. Combine the sugar, corn syrup, water, salt, and vinegar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan with a handle. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil, without stirring. 

6. Use a clean pastry brush to brush water around the edges to dislodge any sugar crystals. If you stir your mixture or undissolved sugar crystals get into it, the whole mixture can become crystallized and get hard, lumpy, and gritty. 

7. Once the mixture is boiling, gently swirl it from time to time by tilting the pan. You’ll cook it for about 20 minutes. Keep a close watch on it and monitor the temperature. When it reaches 300F, quickly remove from heat and add the maple extract (careful, it will sputter!) and the edible glitter. Stir to mix evenly. 

8. Dip apples, one at a time, into the syrup. Let excess syrup drip back into the pan, then dip each apple in the amaranth mixture. Place on the nonstick sheet to harden. Tilt the saucepan as needed to keep the toffee deep enough to cover the apples. If it starts to harden up again, put it back over the burner on “low” until it’s liquid and has reached 300F again.

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