We made caramel apples for fall using our favorite caramel recipe
One of our favorite fall traditions is going to any of the abundant cider mills here in southern Michigan. And while many of them have started carrying gluten free donuts that we can enjoy, my husband still struggles to get a caramel apple, as most commercial caramel apples, even a lot of home made ones, use corn syrup.
We used our favorite caramel recipe, which can be used for almost anything, to cover these apples in gooey, sugary goodness. Topped with colored dusting sugar, these are the perfect addition to any fall spread.
To prepare the apples, wash and dry the apples. Take any stems off and place on either a wire rack or a piece of parchment paper. Use wood or bambo skewers and push them into the apple where the stem was previously.
Prepare the caramel by melting the sugar in a medium sauce pan, making sure to continually scrape the bottom to prevent the sugar from burning.
Once the sugar has completely melted and there are no more chunks, add the cream. The cream will cause the melted sugar to bubble rapidly. This can be quite startling but this is normal.
Add the butter, vanilla and salt and stir until the butter has completly melted, then remove from heat. Let cool for at least 5 minutes.
Once cooled slightly, you can drizzle your caramel over your apples and top with any desired toppings. If the caramel cools too much and is hard to get to stick to the apple, you can go ahead and gently re-warm it on the stove, making sure to continually stir, as to not burn the caramel. If you need to try to re-do an apple, make sure to wash off the apple again as partially cooled caramel is very buttery and the butter will have transferred to the apple.
Let cool. At this point you have amazing, delicious fall treats for anyone to enjoy.
Since we have young kids, we knew that they would not eat a full apple and we tried to pour the caramel over apple slices, as I have seen the idea going around in the past few years. When I saw it it was always done with chocolate and I believe I found out why.
We knew that we would have to dry the cut portion of the apple as much as possible to get the caramel to stick and we even experimented with room temperature and refrigerated apples to see if one would work better than the other.
While the caramel stuck equally to the skins, they slid off the cut side equally too. Unfortunately this part of the project was a dud. (But delicious none the less)
For full Recipe, scroll down.
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