For my Halloween party on Sunday I set up a little caramel apple station, and my family loved it so much I thought I'd share what I did here in case anyone else wants to try it! :)
I bought a bag of apples, removed the stems and pre-washed them. Once they were dry, I stuck wooden skewers (like the kind you use for grilling vegetables in the summer) right through the core. Then I lined them up on some wax paper, so that they wouldn't stick to anything after the caramel was added.
I bought a big tub of caramel at the grocery store, poured it into a microwavable bowl and heated it for about 1 minute in 10 second increments, stirring in between each zap! When it was ready, we took turns dipping our apples, and used a spoon to make sure it was absolutely covered in caramel. Then the fun part is adding your toppings! The options are really endless here... for my party I had chocolate chips, candied walnuts, jimmies, nonpareils, praline crunch and m&ms! We let ours sit out at room temperature for about 10 minutes, to allow for the caramel to harden a bit, but if you're anxious (like my brother was) about 5 minutes in the fridge seems to do the trick! ;)
This is really a great treat for a family with a lot of special diets. My grandmom can't have gluten, my brother is allergic to nuts, and I don't eat meat products (ok, that one isn't really relevant to candy apples, lol) so a lot of times it's tough finding something everyone can eat. But with the caramel apples, we could all have something really yummy! :D
