Mini Caramel Apple Bites #Ad #SweetenTheSeason

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Fall means a jam-packed social calendar (mostly revolving around our kids’ activities) and lots of opportunities to play around with new and old recipes.  Of course, in my book, Fall also means APPLES (and lots of them), because I love them so much.  I try to work apples into as many recipes as possible since they are so fresh and plentiful this time of year.

This week I wanted to try out a sweet treat for an upcoming event this weekend.  I found this fantastic holiday bake center at Walmart that was bursting with all kinds of Halloween and fall themed ingredients. It was easy to grab the items on my list and I was happy that I could stretch my dollars and pick up everything I needed for less than $10.

I bought several Granny Smith Apples, as well as Kraft Caramel Bits and Baker’s White and Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolates.

My thought was to make some sort of mini caramel drizzled apple treat.  I knew the apples would taste great with caramel on them and I picked up the Baker’s chocolate to sprinkle over the top.

In addition to these ingredients, I also used lollipop sticks, a melon baller, wax paper and non-stick cooking spray.

First you’ll want to rinse your apples and use the melon baller to scoop out little balls from each apple.  You can leave the skin on the apple or peel it first – totally personal preference.  I found that I got about 10-11 balls out of each apple.

The Baker’s chocolate was easy to shave into sprinkle-able pieces with a knife.  I shaved about 1/3 of each bar and set the chocolate aside.

Next up: caramel melting time!  I love Kraft Caramel Bits because they are incredibly easy to melt in a short amount of time.  There is nothing to unwrap, you simply dump the bits into a saucepan.

I heated this caramel (one 11 oz package) along with 2 TBSP of water in a saucepan over medium heat.  I made sure to stir it almost constantly until it was entirely melted and smooth.  This didn’t take long – maybe about 4-5 minutes.

First, while I was playing around and learning to work with the caramel, I made a few miniature caramel apples for the kids.

I put a lollipop stick in each apple ball and swirled it around in the just-slightly-cooled caramel.  I placed each apple on a piece of wax paper that I coated with non-stick cooking spray.

For the rest of my apples…

I lined them up on a ceramic plate and drizzled them generously with melted caramel.  Then I sprinkled the apples with the Baker’s White Chocolate and Semi-Sweet Chocolate shavings.

I added a stick to each apple to give them some party poppin’ potential.  Finally I threw them in the refrigerator to help the caramel set.

Tell me – what are your favorite apple/caramel recipes to make?