Peanut Butter and Caramel Dipped Little Apples

Perfect little sweet, healthy apple with barely enough caramel to even come close to ruining your diet or teeth (unless you eat more than two of these in one sitting).  They’re also perfect little Halloween party favors, or a great trick-or-treat goodie.  AND they have peanut butter in the caramel.  Who doesn't love peanut butter on apples?

Peanut Butter – Caramel Dipped Little Apples dozen of the smallest apples you can find.

12 twigs or popsicle sticks.

1 cup granulated white sugar, divided

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup light corn syrup

2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup hot heavy cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup Planter’s Peanut Butter
Optional:  sprinkles, nuts, or other toppings

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Thoroughly wash and dry apples and twigs.  Stick twigs into apples and set aside on a waxed paper or parchment lined baking sheet. I sprayed the waxed paper with cooking spray.  It worked really well to keep the paper from sticking.  If you are going to set them on leaves, wash the leaves thoroughly and spray with cooking spray also. 

2.  Bring heavy cream to a boil, take off the heat, and set aside.   Place 1/2 cup of the sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Heat on medium-high heat and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until light amber in color, about 5-7 minutes. Use a pastry brush, dipped in water, to wash down sides of pan to prevent crystallization as the mixture boils.

3. Remove saucepan from the heat and gradually whisk in the remaining half cup of sugar, corn syrup,, hot heavy cream, salt and butter.  Return to the heat and insert a candy thermometer.  Cook until the thermometer registers 248 Fahrenheit – about 6 to 7 minutes.  Stir in the vanilla extract and the peanut butter.

4. Working quickly, dip the small apples into the caramel, letting any excess drip back into the pan.  We used a table knife to cut the excess off the bottom before we set it down.   Set the apples on the prepared baking sheet (roll in toppings immediately after dipping, if using.  We had trouble doing this without the caramel sticking to the dish with the sprinkles in.  It was easier to pour the sprinkles over the apples as we turned them--- but messy). If the caramel becomes too thick, gently rewarm it over low heat. Let the caramel apples cool for 1 hour before serving. 

     We poured the caramel mixture into a microwave safe measuring cup so it would be deep and the apples just fit. They were easier to dip in that than the pan.  Then when the caramel got a little cool, we heated it for 30 seconds in the microwave.  You have to watch really closely, because if it starts to boil, It boils really high and tries to get out of the cup.

Cheater tip: 

     You can also do this using packaged caramels.  Melt the caramels in the microwave and add a little cream and some peanut butter. This is where it is just a suggestion.  Experiment until you get it just right.  We found that if you use Western Family caramels, the coating gets really hard on the apple.  Next time, we will just stop being cheap and get the Kraft kind.