Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Gourmet Carmel Apples

I made these guys to sell at a craft fair and for my first ones I thought they turned out wonderful!

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So I started by getting a clam shell of granny smith apples from Costco.  Then I washed and dried them really well.  I had one package of caramels leftover from Halloween so I was planning on using those but when I read the package it said that it would only do five apples.  UGH I had 12 apples to do and I REALLY didn’t want to run into town just to get a package of caramels.  Then I remembered that my lovely mother makes the best caramel popcorn balls ever.  So I pulled out my recipe for her caramel popcorn balls and made that caramel for my apples.  WOW it was perfect and WAY better than the store bought kind of caramel.  It was really easy to use and it coated the whole apple beautifully and it was edible without being totally sticky and it didn’t cement your teeth together.  YEAH!

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After I dipped the apples in the caramel I let them sit in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to an hour.  After an hour I took them out and dipped them in milk chocolate.  (sorry I forgot to take pictures of that part) Then I rolled them in, nuts, Oreo cookie pieces, toffee bits, or mini chocolate chips w/chopped peanuts.

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Then I wrapped them up and added a little tag.

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Caramel Recipe

1/2 cup of butter

2 cups of brown sugar

1 cup of corn syrup

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

Stir on medium high heat until it gets to a very soft ball stage then add 1 tsp. of vanilla.

* For 6 apples I made 1/2 a batch and I had leftovers.

IF YOU WANT TO TRY THE POPCORN BALLS MAKE THE FULL RECIPE AND POUR IT OVER 8-12 QUARTS OF POPPED CORN.  STIR AND FORM INTO POPCORN BALLS. WRAP IN WAX PAPER. 

3 comments:

Sharon@thisthriftyhouse said...

Ok--I want to know your secret to keeping the caramel ON the apple. Every time I dip apples (whether using store bought caramels or a homemade recipe) they coat beautifully and then I put them down on the waxed paper and all the caramel falls off!!

EmmaJ said...

YUM YUM! I have been craving these.

Bobbi said...

Okay, just so you know, I tried this tonight, and you make it look way too easy. My caramel was super sticky and when I tried to take the apples off the wax paper after they sat in the fridge for an hour, they wouldn't come off! I had to totally manhandle the apples to get them off the paper, and then the caramel was just ugly after that. I stopped there 'cause I didn't have time to dip them in chocolate. Maybe next time. BTW, you're my hero.