Caramel Apple Goodness

I got to spend the past weekend in Gregory with fellow candy lover & great friend Erica & her family. We tried our hand at caramel apples and they turned out quite delicious-from what I can remember anyways!!
Caramel apples & candy apples seem similar, but they are actually quite different. Caramel apples are just was they sound like--apples covered in caramel coating, while candy apples are covered with a hard, sugary, red candy coating. Stay tuned to this blog as I plan to attempt the candy apple in the future! Caramel apples originated in the 1950s when Kraft salesman Dan Walker thought to combine the Halloween standard: caramels, with a healthy standard: apples. Ta Da! Caramel apples were born. To this day Kraft still prints the caramel apple recipe on the back of their individually wrapped bags of caramels & include complimentary sticks in the bag to promote making these fall treats at home.

Thought about making caramel from scratch, but went to for the super simple recipe instead:


Caramel Apples

Naked Apples :-o

1 pkg individual caramels (unwrapped)
2 Tbsp water
6 apples (we used granny smith)
6 popsicle or craft sticks
any desired additional toppings (chocolate, sprinkles, nuts, etc)


1. Wash and thoroughly dry all apples. The caramel will not stick to wet apples as well. Put the sticks into the top of the apple, right beside the stem. Prepare a sheet of wax paper to put dipped apples onto. 


2. In a small saucepan melt the unwrapped caramels and water until you can stir it easily with a spoon.

Naked Caramels :-o

3. Dip apples into caramel about 3/4 way up the apple. Wipe excess caramel off the bottom with a spoon, and place on wax paper.


4. Drizzle chocolate and sprinkle any additional toppings before the caramel sets completely. Allow caramel to re-solidify. you can place them in the fridge for a couple hours to hurry the process. Enjoy!

Fully Dressed Apples!
*notice the "poopy apple"
on the left with the burnt chocolate...hah

We tried to melt some chocolate chips in the microwave--I've determined that this is always a bad idea, no matter how much faster it is. I almost always burn the chocolate and it just doesn't work. This time it was too thick to spread, yet alone drizzle. Stove-top melting is always a better choice. As a quick solution, we drizzled Hershey's Chocolate Syrup on top of the apples. It didn't dry like melted chocolate would have, but it tasted just as good! You may also notice that our "sticks" are not the typical wooden stick, but plastic knifes. We couldn't find craft sticks at the local grocery store, so we used our imagination & they turned out just fine! (although we did have to be careful when we bit into them...haha!)


We also topped some of the apples with sprinkles. 

Raegan is proud of the apples :)

My favorite sprinkles ever are the star shaped ones that have a little substance to them. Whenever my mom would get these growing up, she'd hide them because I would go into the cupboard to just eat them by the handful- straight out of the bottle...talk about sugar addiction!! Needless to say, mom didn't buy them very often because they were always gone by the time she was actually going to use them... oops!


It happened to be the Gregory Volunteer Firefighter's Dance on Saturday, so after a good night of celebration we came home & thought it a grand idea to dig into the caramel apples. Even though I am thoroughly embarrassed by these photos, I told Matt I would put some on here because, as he didn't partake in celebrating with beverages, he found my consumption of the apples quite hilarious... I would like to meet a person who can eat a caramel apple & NOT get any on there face! :)

Messy Melvin...

...and proud of it!!