Mini Caramel Apples

Everybody loves a caramel apple but nobody actually likes to eat them. They're a pain and you end up with caramel on your nose, plus the apple to caramel ratio is not good, far too much apple.

I've seen these floating around lately and I thought they were such a fun idea.

Mini Caramel Apples

I didn't take a picture tutorial because I only had one nap to complete them in, there wasn't time, also I didn' t know they'd be so cute. I will tell you what I did though.

I started with 3 apples, I meant to get more than that but I forgot to write it on my grocery list. Two were granny smith and one was a braeburn (can't wait until the Ambrosia's come back). I washed them well and then dried them. I then took a melon baller and made as many little scoops as I could. I think I got just under 30 so in the end 3 apples was plenty. I dropped those scoops in lemon water to keep them from going brown and then I dried them as well as I could.

Once they were dry I laid them out on a sheet of parchment paper (put a cookie sheet underneath, it was later that I realized how silly it was not to have). I didn't have any sucker sticks and I didn't want to buy any but I did have a small handful of bamboo skewers so I cut each one into 4 pieces and pressed those down into my apples (next time I'll probably use toothpicks).

It was here that I was grateful I'd read a few other people's experience with these apples and had formulated a good plan. I noticed as I pushed my sticks down that some apple juice would raise up and even trickle down the side sometimes. I had read that people have a hard time getting the caramel to stick to the apple since there's no skin, it just peels right off because there's no way to dry the apple well enough. I had decided to first dip in chocolate.

I melted a handful of chocolate chips in the microwave and once it was melted I decided it was much too thick. I thinned it with a little olive oil though I'm not sure why I didn't use milk, it was just the first thing that came to mind and it worked just fine.

Once my chocolate was a consistency I was happy with I dipped my apples in, one at a time. I used an extra skewer to help get the chocolate right up to the stick so there wasn't any apple showing. I did run out of chocolate halfway though and had to melt a little more. I replaced the dipped apples to my parchment and once they were done I slipped them into the fridge. Here's where I was wishing for a cookie sheet. I used some creative sliding with cutting boards and left them on that until the chocolate was set and I could replace the cutting boards with a cookie sheet.

While the chocolate set I got out my toppings (I should have done this while my caramel cooled). I used peanuts, teddy grahams and skor bits. The peanuts and teddy graham I crushed with a hammer. I put the three in small bowls and then I worked on the caramels.

I used a bag of Kraft caramels, unwrapped and microwaved with 2 tbsp of cream. Again I thought this was way too thick so I added probably another 4 tbsp, maybe even a little more than that.

It seemed like it was so thick it would just push off my chocolate.

At some point I realized my apples weren't setting fast enough so I transferred them to the freezer. I wanted them to be good and cold so my caramel wouldn't melt the chocolate so I only pulled out a couple at a time. The first two were casualties as the caramel was too hot and my chocolate melted. I gave it some time and then I resumed, I got better as I went on and here's what worked best.

I dipped one apple with my right hand and then tipped it upside down and transferred it to my left hand turning occasionally to give the caramel a little time to cool so it wouldn't all slide off. As I did that I dipped a second and transferred it to my left hand as well so I'm now holding and turning two apples. Then I dipped a third. While my third was being turned and cooled by my right hand I used my left to dunk the two in topping and then place on the parchment. By the time those two were done I could dunk the remaining one. I repeated that until I was finished (sounds tricky but it was really no big deal).

Start to finish they took about an hour and a half which I thought was not bad for such a delicious result.

I do think they were a little fragile, It seemed like if I left them out of the fridge the caramel would start to slide off the chocolate and it got really sticky. This could have been for a couple reasons. Maybe the oil in the chocolate was a bad idea, or maybe I used too much milk in my caramel. I think I'll give them one more try to see if I can improve them but even as is they were a big hit and just so cute.