Caramel Apples

One of my favorite treats are Caramel Apples. I couldn't wait until Halloween came so that I could get a caramel apple. Then I learned how to make my own caramel. Wonderful! Today I went looking for the caramel recipe I have used for the last couple of years. Do you think I could find it? Of course not! So while looking, I found this recipe, (http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/caramel-apples) that was close but a little different. My old recipe used heavy cream while this one calls for a can of sweetened condensed milk. Fortunately I had a can of SC milk and so I make this recipe to make my caramel apples. Today is a close friend’s birthday and one of these apples will be her birthday gift from me (after all it is October). So let’s get started.

Ingredients:

Apples (this recipe said it will cover 8-10 medium size apples)

Sticks (one for each apple, you may use craft sticks, but I am used chop sticks, longer and heavier)

1 cup butter

2 cups brown sugar (packed hard)

1 cup light corn syrup

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla (the real stuff tastes better)

Whatever you want to dip the caramel apple in , I used mini M&M’s, and chopped pecans)

Supplies:

Heavy 3 qt sauce pan

Rubber scraper

Measuring cups

Candy thermometer

Parchment paper

Measuring spoons

Bowls

Hot pad

Spotted spoon

Dish cloth

Advance preparation:

You need to make sure your store bought apple don’t have wax on them (most do). Remove the stem

and little paper tags from each apple.

Bring a pot of water to a boil.

Dip an apple in the water for a couple of seconds, remove from the water and then dry the apple.

Repeat with the rest of the apples.

Push a stick into the center of each apple. (I have astigmatism, I can’t get anything straight.) Lay out a piece of parchment paper. Put the apples on it.

Have the chopped nuts and mini M&M’s in bowls ready to go.

Now to make the caramel. Put the butter, brown sugar,

sweetened condensed milk, and corn syrup into the pan.

You will be stirring this the whole time it is cooking. Turn the heat on to medium high and start stirring using a rubber scraper. While this is cooking and you are stirring, you need to know that you can’t remove the scraper from the candy and then return it to the candy without running the risk of having your caramel turning to sugar. Also don’t scrape down the whole inside of the pan for the same reason. Just keep stirring the candy itself.

Watch your candy thermometer and remove the candy from the heat when the temperature reaches 240°n F (120° C). Add the vanilla

and stir. Put the pan of caramel on a top pad near the parchment paper and apples.

Pick up an apple by the stick and dip it in the caramel, swirl the apple until it is covered with caramel.

Let as much caramel drip off as possible. You may use a knife to scrape off some of the caramel on the bottom.

Quickly dip the caramel covered apple in the candy or nuts, rotating and pressing down so that the stuff sticks to the caramel. Put the finished apple down on the parchment paper.

Repeat with the rest of the apples.

I didn't use very many apples and they are on the small side, so I had left over caramel. I lined a baking dish with parchment paper, sprayed with no stick cooking spray and poured the last of the caramel into the dish. I will save it by keeping it in an air tight container, and use them later to make pretzel rods for Christmas, see this Instructable (https://www.instructables.com/id/Chocolate-Covered-Pretzel-Rods/) .

To wrap a caramel apple as a gift, I left a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the apple and wrapping in cellophane and tie a ribbon around the stick. Looks really nice.

Here is a simple way to serve a caramel apple. With a sharp chefs knife, slice along one side of the stitch, then slice on the opposite side. Lastly cut off the last two ends. Now your caramel apple is easier to eat and to share. Enjoy!