Caramel Apples: The Secrets!

When I was younger (like, early teens younger), we made caramel apples every year to raise money for girl's camp.  When we first made them, they were $5.  And we're not just talking an apple dipped in caramel here.  We're talking, fat, red, juicy apples hand dipped in smooth caramel and re-dipped in rich white chocolate, and then dipped again in decadent milk chocolate and finally sprinkled with chopped nuts and pieces of toffee.  They first rolled out of the kitchen for $5 per apple.  The next year, $5.50.  The next year, $7.50.  And we never had a decrease in customers.  People kept buying more, and more, and more.  (Means they were heavenly and worth the $8 we sold them for most recently.)  So, here are some nifty tips and tricks for making delicious caramel apples that your friends, neighbors, family, and enemies will die for.

1. Braeburn of Fuji
You can't use just any old apple.  You're combining it with tons of other rich flavors like caramel and chocolate.  It needs to have that apple taste AND those sweet flavors.  Green apples are far too overpowering.  My favorite ones to use are Braeburns, but Fujis work as well.

2. Consistent Caramel
You have to use the same brand of caramels and you have to have the right consistency.  Different brands don't always work together well, and can be confusing.  The consistency of your caramel should be not too thick and not too thin.  If it's too thick, your apples will be huge because the caramel doesn't run off.  If it's too thin, your apples won't have any caramel on them by the end of the night because it will all run off.  A little bit of run off is good, but not a lot.  I compare to prefectly melted chocolate.  You don't want it that thin; just a bit thicker.  Don't follow the directions on the caramel package- just add a teaspoon of water at a time and watch it.

3. Ogres have layers- and so should caramel apples.
To make them look really pretty and professional, don't cover the whole apple all the way up to the top with every single topping.  Cover the whole thing with caramel; then the next time you dip it, only cover it 2/3 of the way up.  The next time, only 1/3.  If you have more layers, adjust how much you cover, but make sure each layer can be seen and it will look fabulous, I guarantee. :]

4. Serve 'em Fresh.
Apples still rot.  If you want to give caramel apples as gifts, make them the day of or the day before.  If you wait for too long, then the caramel will eventually all run off, and the apple will rot.  Which is a sad thing indeed.

5. Get some help!
There are a lot of components to any kind of candy making and having helpers is a good thing, particularly helpers who know what they're doing!  If you want to make caramel apples, I will gladly lend a helping hand- it's tricky, but once you do it with someone, you kind of get a feel for it.

Sorry there aren't any pictures to go with this one; I know you'll find it in your hearts to forgive me. ;]

If You Like to Talk to Tomatoes . . .

The week of 11/11/11 11:11:11

I baked.

 And then we decorated.

And we ate chocolate like objects.

And I worked 10 hours in one day . . . (cookies on line 1!!)

 Feature Film of the Week:

Broccoli, celery, gotta be . . . Veggie Tales!

 And Devin got all dressed up!

Tanner: "Nice bling!"

Gail: "It's a leash!"

D-Vine

Today I finally started baking again!  On the menu: Chocolate Mousse in Cookie Bowls

First, we have the cookie bowls.

My partner in crime, Hanna, and her mad skillz with a rolling pin.

As always, roll out the dough!  In order to make the bowls, you want to roll it out kind of thick (1/4-1/2 inch).

Test "cookies" 

 And then you drape and mold them over the bottoms of a muffin pan! (Creative, right?!)

They should look kind of like this.  The original recipe uses fluted muffin pans, which make very classy looking bowls, but a regular muffin pan works, too.

 Cover a dozen or so muffin bottoms (and don't forget to spray the pan so that the cookies won't stick because that would be terribly unfortunate.).

Before the Oven

 Pop them in the oven for about 10 minutes. (@ 350 degrees)

After the oven

 Very, very, very carefully, remove the bowls from the tins.  The easiest way we discovered to do this was to run a knife along the bottom (the lip) of the bowls and then gently left them up.

They come out beautifully!!!

 And set them on a rack to cool :]

Cue Ray Charles: "You are so beautiful to me . . . etc"

While they're cooling, on to the Chocolate Mousse! (you can find the actual recipe for the chocolate mousse in one of my links over on the side- biggirlssmallkitchen.com.)

Basically, this is chocolate chips, water, butter, eggs, sugar, an salt.  Together,  they have it all.

 At this point, it smells delicious and looks very chocolatey.

Before the fridge/freezer.

 So, we didn't chill it for quite long enough so it was more like a chocolatey soup than mousse.  But it was still wonderful!!

And this is where the real test of your skills comes in to play.

 And you combine the two in perfect harmony.

They look wonderous . . . angels designed for these two to be together.

 And the bakers saw the chocolate mousse, that it was a thing of greatness.

Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top, and you have the equivalent of pure gold.  You could also do  fresh raspberries or a sprig of peppermint and that would pretty much be perfection, but we didn't have any because we're poor college students without a vehicle to call our own.

After sprinkling the powdered sugar, prepare yourself for the most amazing dessert ever and enjoy! (Don't forget to breathe during the process.)