Caramel Apples for Halloween

Today, Sunday, was a rainy, dreary day here in Toronto. For some fun in the afternoon, we decided to make caramel apples. Since it's almost Halloween, and these apples are a delicious Halloween treat, we gathered up all of the things we needed and whipped them up in a very short time. 

Depending on your tastes, you can add or subtract items from the list. We used:

Apples - uncut, with the skin

Wooden sticks - a chopstick works perfectly, we broke our chopsticks in half. You could use the flat Popsicle sticks too. 

Caramel - the little cubes in wrappers that you buy, take the wrappers off

Mini M&Ms - the tiny, coloured pieces of chocolate

Coconut - sweet 

Walnut bits - you can use peanuts or any kind of nut that you like

Brown sugar and cinammon

Score bits - little chunks of toffee

Reese's chocolate chips - mini 

White chocolate shavings

Brown sugar

How we made them: 

You need a double boiler for these or, I suppose, a rice maker. Unwrap the caramel chunks and put them in the top part of the double boiler. If you have a steel pan that fits in the top of your rice maker/steamer you could try that. I know many people who only have a rice maker and use it for just about everything. The steam from the double boiler or steamer will heat the caramel and melt it. Make sure that the caramel is totally melted and smooth. 

Push the stick into the core of the apple and roll it around in the melted caramel. Use a spoon to cover the apple in caramel, making sure it has an even coat all over it. 

Twist the stick to keep the caramel from dripping off and dip the apple into whatever extras that you want on it. You can dip one part in the M&Ms, another part into the walnuts and so on. 

Put the finished apple on a tray covered with some wax paper into your refrigerator. The apple won't stick to the wax paper. Once it's set, enjoy a sweet, moderately healthy treat. Hey, at least the apple is healthy! 

I hope you enjoy this recipe and, as always, thanks for reading!