Ree Drummond Adds Red Hots To Cinnamon Apples

With indulgent and delicious dishes like Baked Ziti, Chocolate Pie, and Potato Soup, "The Pioneer Woman" Ree Drummond has a knack for ranch-style cooking for the whole family. Leave it to Drummond to find a way to incorporate Cap'n Crunch into chicken strips, or sour cream into pancakes, and she can turn just about anything into a casserole. But maybe above all, her desserts sound designed to bring out one's inner kid, drawing on nostalgic childhood flavors, like her cinnamon apples made with Red Hots candy.

Traditionally, cinnamon apple or poached apple recipes begin with bringing a sugary liquid — such as water, wine, or juice with added sugar — with aromatics to a boil and simmering peeled apples in the sweet liquid until the apples are tender. The remaining liquid is then strained and reduced to make a syrupy sauce that is poured on top of the apples and served alongside ice cream or French toast. However, as seen in a TikTok posted by Food Network, Drummond's recipe spices up Cinnamon Apples with Red Hot candies.

Though this may sound like a strange addition, recipes that use apples and Red Hots or similar candies have been around since the 1930s, with the earliest recorded recipe dating back to 1929, according to Kitchen Historic. This kind of recipe is right up Drummond's alley. Her take on Cinnamon Apples both welcomes apple season and could be a nice way to use up leftover Halloween candy.

In the TikTok video, a whole lot of Red Hots are melted down in a deep skillet with brown sugar and water to create a spicy, cinnamony syrup. Peeled, cored, and sliced granny smith apples are added to the Red Hots syrup. The apples come out a vibrant, well, hot red, and then are transferred to a glass bowl, topped with the syrup, and left to sit in the fridge. To serve, toasted slices of store-bought pound cake are topped with vanilla ice cream and juicy Red Hots-infused apples.

This indulgent, nostalgic recipe could satisfy both sweet and spicy tooths, and commenters on TikTok are eating it up. One comment read, "My momma did this all the time when I was growing up." Another read, "my grandmother did this with some of her homemade pickles...they were insanely good!" Some were curious to see how they could take it a step further, like adding the Red Hots-flavored apples to a pie or subbing out the Red Hots for Fireball whiskey. Whichever way you spin it, this nostalgic, fall apple recipe will have you feeling like a kid again this cozy season.