Great Grandma's Candied Apples, Take Two

Loyal reader, thanks for sticking around. I know I haven't written to you in a while. My first update of the weekend is a bit of a revisit. I again tried to get my great grandma's candied apples to work. Again, they didn't. But at least the things I did differently had an effect. Let's jump right in.

Ingredients:
1 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
4 1/2 small granny smith apples

Procedure:
Preheat the oven to 350F. Peel, core, and quarter the apples. Bring the sugar and water to a soft boil and add them. Keep the water just barely boiling until the apples are tender, about 20 minutes. Since they will try to float and push each other out, you'll have to rearrange the apples every few minutes. This will also allow you to keep an eye on how tender they become. If they get too soft, you're making applesauce.



Pour the apples and sugar water into a small pan and place in the oven with the expectation that they'll soak up most of the fluid and turn pink. It's supposed to take about half an hour. You may notice that mine did not turn pink, though they did soak up most of the liquid and didn't disintegrate.



They're sweet, but I wouldn't really call what I'm ending up with "candied." Considering the rave reviews I've heard from my mom and great aunt about these apples, I imagine I'll have to re-revisit this recipe.