• Granny Smith Apples • Salted Butter • Light Brown Sugar • Light Corn Syrup • Sweetened Condensed Milk • Vanilla Extract • White Candy Melts • Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture • Crushed Pretzels • Chopped Pecans • Chopped Peanuts • Mini M&M's • Crushed Oreos • Toasted Coconut • Melted chocolate • Broken Peanut Butter Cups • Chopped Butterfingers • Graham Cracker Crumbs • Marshmallows
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Wash the apples and dry completely. Insert a tongue depressor into the apple from the top, deep enough to hold firmly. Place the skewered apples on the prepared baking sheet and freeze for 20 minutes.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.
Stir in the brown sugar, corn syrup and sweetened condensed milk with a wooden spoon.
Continue cooking and stirring over medium-high heat until the temperature of the caramel reaches 235-240 on a candy thermometer (about 12-15 minutes but you definitely want to use a candy thermometer for this step!).
Remove the pan from the heat and immediately stir in the vanilla. Don't worry about the caramel bubbling a bit when the vanilla gets stirred in. Just keep stirring and it will all come together.
Pull the (now-chilled) apples out of the freezer and dip them into the caramel, one at a time, letting excess caramel drip off the apple.
Give the apple a quick flip upside down and hold it like that for 20 seconds or so to give the hot caramel a chance to set up on the cold apple before turning it right side up.
Set the dipped apple down on the parchment paper. Repeat with remaining apples, then transfer to the fridge for 15 minutes to set completely.
If you want to go beyond a traditional caramel apple, you can roll your caramel dipped apple into any toppings you can think of that sound good. Do this just after dipping the apple, before the caramel completely sets up.
You can make an entire batch of this easy caramel apples recipe for the price of just one apple from a candy shop!
The fresh, crisp apple with chewy, sweet caramel combo is a timeless one and you can really have these anytime of the year. Caramel Apples are always popular around Halloween, but we also love making them in December as small, DIY gifts for friends, teachers and neighbors.
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