ISO: apple taffy

Growing up in the 1950s I used to have a neighbor who made "apple taffies" that I would love to replicate. She made red and brown ones, the brown being my real favorite. She is long gone now and i regret never having asked for her recipe. These were not at all like the ones I can find these days which are usually soft caramel, often rolled in nuts, with unremarkable flavor. These had a smooth, crisp, shining coating with a chracteristic disc that formed at the top of the apple as the coating cooled and hardened on the inverted "apple taffies" set out on trays on the back porch, usually in October. You really had to eat this flat top first before you could actually get your teeth to the apple, and we always looked for the ones that had formed the biggest top. I would be so grateful if someone could identify a recipe my memory might be based upon. I don't know if it was based on brown sugar or maple syrup or something else, but it was delicious.