Caramel Apples

Last year I made my first attempt at Caramel Apples. I made honey caramel apples, which I originally found the recipe for on Our Best Bites.  They honey caramel was easy. It worked perfectly, and it was delicious. It did however have a strong honey taste to it, go figure. I didn't mind this strong honey flavor, but we like to dip our apples in candy which some candy doesn't blend extremely well with the honey flavor. This year I decided to look for a more traditional recipe. I searched the internet and found several recipes. This recipe on Taste of Home caught my attention because it used sweetened condensed milk instead of cream. I'm not opposed to cream, but I usually have to buy more than I need and then never find a way to use the rest and throw it away. I'd rather not be wasteful so the recipe with sweetened condensed milk won.  This recipe was also easy and it was so good. The reviews mentions lowering the temperature to 240F instead of 248F. I tried to follow this advice, but I'm sure my thrift store candy thermometer is a little off so I ultimately don't know what temperature I hit, but anywhere from 240-248F should get you good caramel. Our Best Bites has a great tutorial on how to calibrate your candy thermometer. Check it out if you want to be a little more precise than me.

Caramel Apples

adapted from Taste of Home

• 10 to 12 Popsicle sticks
• 10 to 12 medium tart apples
• 1/2 cup butter, cubed
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• Dash salt
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• candy, nuts, etc (optional)

Clean and dry apples. Skewer apples with sticks. Keep apples in the refrigerator until ready to dip (using cold apples with help the caramel stick.) In a large heavy saucepan, melt butter; add the brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil, about 10-12 minutes. Stir in milk. Cook and stir until a candy thermometer reads 240-248°F (firm ball stage). Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Let caramel cool for 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove apples from the refrigerator and dip in caramel. Allow excess caramel to drip back in pan. Roll dipped apple in candy or nuts if desired and place on a cookie sheet covered in wax or parchment paper.   Let caramel apples set in the refrigerator.