This post is centered around a special thing we do at work every other Wednesday; Wacky Hump Day! We take turns bringing special treats in to liven up the work week. The cool weather has been hitting us hard in the Berkshires lately, I decided that my contribution should be Fall-centric so I decided on...........Caramel Apples! The original plan was to get my butt to a local apple orchard to Pick-My-Own just to make the goodies extra special, but because of many things outside my realm of control prohibited this. I ended up buying a couple of bags of small, organic Granny Smiths but any tart apple with firm flesh will do. I also went the easy route and bought caramels(in stead of making my own) and in the end it was more time consuming. Here's the recipe I used:
2 bags of wrapped caramels, unwrapped
2 Tbs of water
12 small or 6-8 larger Granny Smith apples
Popsicle sticks(I ran out and ended up using a few chopsticks, just use whatever you have)
I used a double boiler method to melt the caramels with the 2 Tbs of water:
The washed, dried and skewered the apples:
It's very important that the apples are washed well, or the caramel will not stick. Some recipes suggest dropping the apples in boiling water to remove the wax that they are usually coated with, some severely frown on that. I used a veggie scrubber which I thought had done the job, until the next day when most of the coating had dripped down and pooled around each apple. Still delicious, although not aesthetically pleasing.
All of the recipes I read said to put the finished apples on waxed paper, but I didn't trust that to release easily enough. Silpat to the rescue! They were even pretty hard to get off of the Silpat, I can't even imagine the catastrophe if I had used wax paper!
I unfortunatley didn't have the skill to hold my camera while dipping the apples, but here's the finished product:
These beauties can be dipped in candy, nuts, a second layer or caramel right away, then left overnight to set up. Then serve!! We ended up eating ours with knives and forks since we were in our fancy work clothes but GO AHEAD use your hands!
I'm still very in the fall cooking/baking mood, please share your favorite seasonal recipes with me!!!!
