We love the CONCEPT of caramel apples, but have you ever tried to eat one of those things? If you pick it up and bite it, you and up with a sticky mess all over your face and it’s impossible to share. And cutting it with a knife is way more complicated than it sounds. How to do cut it to evenly portion out the toppings? As you can tell, we’ve spent a lot of time worrying about this.
Problem solved! This recipe gives you bite-sized apple with a generous dose of caramel and nuts. It’s a great Thanksgiving dessert, especially for kids. Turn the concept into a caramel apple bar and load up a table with fun toppings. Salted pretzel bits, mini m&ms, chocolate sauce, a variety of chopped nuts, CRISPED BACON CRUMBLES: these are just a few additions off the tops of our heads! We used peanuts and pistachios.
Use our cute festive toothpick tutorial to make extra-special dessert picks for serving these tasty little treats.
- 2 apples (we love sweet-tart ones, like honeycrisp or jona gold)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 cup creamy salted caramel, warm (recipe below)
- Optional toppings: 1/2 cup chopped nuts, chocolate fudge sauce, and any other toppings you like!
- Core the apples and cut each apple into 20 pieces. Toss with the lemon juice to prevent browning.
- Use a toothpick to dip each apple piece into the caramel, then into the toppings of your choice. Drizzle with chocolate sauce if using.
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- Cook the butter, brown sugar and honey in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Stir until sugar is melted and the ingredients are combined.
- Bring to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until it starts to turn an amber color. Stir frequently to avoid any burning on the bottom of the pan.
- Whisk in the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract and salt until well-combined.
This is a great idea! I love that you kept some skins on. And yes! Eating a caramel apple is so overly complicated.. and cutting one up yourself is never fun. This looks yum!