About this time last year I was able to go visit one of my best friends (since Kindergarten) in her home in P.G. While there she offered me some of the BEST darn caramel apples I’ve ever had! Cinnamon Sugar white chocolate caramel apples to be exact. They were seriously AMAZING! And beautiful. I was in heaven.
Ever since then I have wanted to make some myself. So I went online and did a google search but had a really hard time figuring out exactly how to make these delicious num nums. I knew the basic ingredients but figured there had to be some trick to making them look so beautiful. Finally after about an hour of searching I was able to find an LDS woman who had made them with her young womens group! Yay! From some of her “tips and tricks” I was able to get the general idea and on Thursday night I did an experimental “run through” from her instructions.
Needless to say I learned some valuable lessons in that first run since my caramel apples did not turn out NEARLY as pretty as they should have. 1) ALWAYS spray your wax paper or plate or cookie sheet with LOTS of cooking spray or butter. 2) Scrape off the bottom of your apple after dipping in caramel or chocolate with a knife before placing on wax paper. 3) Make sure your caramel, and chocolate is properly thinned and HOT when dipping your apples in. Reheat if necessary 4) Let the caramel and chocolate drip as much as possible before placing apple down on waxed paper. 5) Turn the apples sideways in a bowl to dip.
So the plan had been to do more caramel apple dipping at our party last night, but when several of our guests left early (hope you are feeling better Colie) and then Adam needed to make a quick run to home depot to buy some space heaters for our renters whose furnace went out and took Joey along, it ended up being just me and Missy! We had a BLAST though and I must say that round two turned out much better than round one. What do you think?
Back left: Caramel milk chocolate apple in sprinkles. Back Right: Caramel white chocolate apple with milk chocolate drippings. Front Left: Caramel milk chocolate apple in sixlets (the kids choice), and Front Right: Cinnamon Sugar white chocolate caramel apple!
Ingredients:
Granny Smith Apples
Caramel
White Chocolate (chips work too)
Chocolate chips
Shortening
Water
Directions: Wash and dry apples well (cold apples from the refrigerator work best) and insert popcycle sticks in top of apple. Get out wax paper and spray thoroughly with spray butter, Pam, or butter stick. Put wax paper on plate or cookie sheet. Put caramel into cereal bowl and add about 1 Tbsp water to caramel. Warm in microwave about 1 minute. Stir and check consistency of caramel (you want it to be somewhat THIN). Add water if necessary and put back in microwave for 20 seconds increments until all lumps are gone. Stir until smooth. Tilt cereal bowl on its side and then place apple in caramel and spin apple until completely covered in caramel. Place bowl and apple upright and allow apple to drip excess caramel into bowl. Scrape off extra caramel on bottom of apple with a knife. Place apple on waxed paper. Repeat process. (Tip: Usually after doing about two apples my caramel will have cooled enough – which will prevent a smooth finish of apple – Reheat caramel another 20-30 seconds).
After all apples have caramel on them place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes to cool. Once cool warm up your white or milk chocolate (whichever you will be using) with about 1 TBSP shortening (this helps thin it) in the microwave about one minute. Stir and check consistency. Put back in microwave if there are any clumps for another 20-30 seconds. Once thin enough and smooth tilt cereal bowl slightly and dip apple in (which is also tilted sideways) and rotate until completely covered in chocolate. Again let apple drip excess chocolate in bowl and smooth bottom with knife. Roll in treat of your choice (cinnamon sugar, nuts, toffee chips, sprinkles, m&m’s, etc.) If putting additional melted chocolate on apple make sure that is warm and ready to splatter on. When finished put apple back on wax paper (or you may need to butter up a new one) and place back in refrigerator for 20-30 more minutes.
Cut up and ENJOY! These seriously are amazing! Your taste buds will never be happier!
i have made these before and loved them but i always used the caramel squares that you unwrap. what did you use, a Caramel sauce? that would be so much easier. thanks for sharing they are so yummy and a great treat to leave at doorsteps!
Those look delicious yet quite time consuming! Great job on organizing too! One thing we do that I love is we rotate toys every month. I have bins and will bring out new ones and replace them with the old. I try to have a variety with one type of building, one type of cars, etc. The day we switch the toys is the best because it is like Christmas every month and he is so entertained! Your family is so darling and you do such fun things!