Caramel Apples

We've discovered a new favourite treat... the caramel apple. Nothing revolutionary but I'd never really made them before (okay, I did make these caramel apple bites but those are different, though also delicious)

I've never been a big fan of caramel apples because they're so tough to eat but I though Catie would think they were fun so we made them. I did the caramel and dipped the apples and Catie rolled them in the toppings .  Now before you start thinking, "whoa, those are tough, Laura's amazing". These apples are attempt number three, the first two being completely unsalvagable.

You know what would have made these easier? A candy thermometer. I don't know why I don't have one but I never remember to buy one until it's late at night and I spur of the moment make something. I figured no big deal though, I'll just use the cup of water trick and cook it until a soft ball, no problem. Everything seemed to be going fine, we dipped the apples and they were even more beautiful than these ones, except when I tried to test one once they'd cooled you couldn't even take one bite they were so hard. I figured I'd try to cut them instead but they caramel just cracked off, and I could barely get a knife through it. Not a soft ball stage.

Catie was really disappointing though so I thought we'd give it another try. I wanted to take the easy route this time and go for pre-made caramel and as I was grocery shopping I came across a display of Macintosh caramels with a pamphlet on how to make caramel apples. Perfect. It called for two packages so I bought them, mixed it with water according to directions and melted. Then we went to dip and this caramel was so stinkin thin! I still feel mislead because it turns out the package size I was supposed to use was not the one on the giant display beside the instructions. I was supposed to use one much larger and now there's too much water and it rolls off the apple and isn't ever going to set.

So now Catie's disappointed twice and I figure I can handle a homemade caramel so I tried again. I used this recipe although I'm pretty skeptical on the directions. It says you're supposed to cook it on high, without stirring for 30 minutes. My super hard first caramel was not cooked that long or that high so I just skipped the directions and took it off when I though it was ready, after maybe 7 or 8 minutes. It was perfect, nice and soft and super delicious.

I can't stand how hard they are to eat so I cut them up for both me and the kids though.

Eden likes to eat all the caramel off and leave the apples which makes me crazy but I'm trying to let it go.

We dipped them in mini M&M's, skor bits and round sprinkles and surprisingly my favourite are the sprinkles. I bought them for Catie but they have a super yummy crunch. Most recipes say you should use granny smith apples but I just grabbed a bag of whichever were the smallest which turned out the be Gala, yummy.

We've already made two batches of them, and hey, they're apples so they're a perfectly nutritional lunch right? (not that I ate it for lunch yesterday or anything...)