Caramel Apples ~ Milk Free

Today I am so excited to be participating in The Improv Cooking Challenge with The Lady Behind the Curtain.  The challenge was to come up with any recipe that included caramel and apples! 

Fall is a fun time of the year to cook with caramel and apples.  In honor of our recent visit to the State Fair, I am posting my recipe for Milk Free Caramel Apples.  You can modify this recipe to suit your likings.  Just change the toppings around and Viola` you have a masterful creation!

I adapted a few of the caramel recipes I found on the web to make it safe for String Beane.  My version of Caramel Apples does not contain milk.  Whilst this is very important to me to make sure all the super cool things I covet and figure out how to make are safe for String Beane, it does not seem to be important to him.  When he gets home from school today, he is likely to look at the totally wonderful looking Caramel Apples and remind me that he does not like apples.  I don't think liking apples is the point of a yummy Caramel Apple.  The apple is just sort of the vessel necessary to hold the caramel and yummy toppings. 

  These Caramel Apples could have been a lot cuter if I had taken my time and gone to Wal mart to get some Halloween sprinkles and the little bottles that you can squirt melted chocolate out of.  I just used what I had here and made the caramel apples that I had been inspired to make.  Feel free to plan ahead and use really cool toppings for your Caramel Apples. 



I made three Caramel Apples because I had three apples.  Duh. 

Ingredients

Apples

1/2 cup butter (I used Fleishman's unsalted Margarine)

1 cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoons Karo Syrup (I used dark because that was what I had here)

Toppings can be anything you want!  I used Semi Sweet chocolate chips, sprinkles, and marshmallows.

Directions

Heat the margarine, brown sugar and Karo syrup in a sauce pan until boiling.  Stir constantly.  Boil for 1-3 minutes. 

Dip and twist the apples around in the caramel until they are coated.  Roll the caramel dipped apple in the toppings. Place them on a plate lined with wax paper.  I found it the easiest to do one apple at a time so the caramel does not set too much for the toppings to stick. 



Chocolate Carmel with Marshmallows



Caramel with Semi Sweet chocolate Chips



Caramel with Sprinkles


I had a great time making these.  A few things to note:  I think I would have been happier with the end result if I had used a Green apple.  But it is hard to be impulsive if you go to the store and buy the proper ingredients.  I had red so I used red.  I also would have liked to have gotten some of the little squirt bottles and drizzled melted chocolate and butter scotch all over these.  As it stands, you can see with the chocolate caramel apple with marshmallows, I used a spoon and accidental dumped drizzled the chocolate caramel over the apple.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder right? 

I can't wait to see String Beane's reaction when he sees them.