In an effort to spice things up on a recent trip to the store, I pointed a not so subtle finger to the apples and caramels beautifully displayed for suckers like me. A yearly tradition now, with very little success. Michael smiled and gave me that look like, "I think this is a bad idea, but I love you, and also I don't think I can talk you out of it." I smiled back and began scooping handfuls of caramel into a bag to be weighed. We snagged 5 of the best looking apples we could find, and finished our grocery shopping. Michael had been secretly youtubing "How to make the perfect caramel apple." Once home, he unleashed all his fantastic ideas, and I could feel the hope start flooding in. It was unfortunately lost after the last few years of caramel apples resulting like a couple of 5 year old children made them. Simply put, they could have been featured as a "pinterest fail" and we always swore "never again!" But this year was going to be different. We had messed up so many times, that surely they would turn out.
"Alright, Step 1- Unwrap the caramels," Michael stated confidently.
I began to unwrap, while he soothed Ramona, who was not as excited as we were about these caramel apples. The unwrapping process always takes longer than I anticipate.
"Step 2- Place the caramels in a bowl over a boiling pot of water. Then dip the apples."
So we did. And we waited, and waited, and waited. The caramel slowly melted, but never to a liquid consistency like the caramel in the video. After what felt like forever, we gave in, and started to dip the apples. They acquired a very, VERY thick layer of caramel.
"Step 3- make sure to let the caramel dry, hanging upside down."
We make shifted an amazon box into a caramel apple holder, so we could let the apples dry upside down. It didn't work the way I imagined it would. The apples didn't stay upright and kept slowly falling to the side. The caramel slowly started drooping to the side as well.
"Step 4- Microwave white chocolate, and coat apples evenly. Then sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the chocolate"
The chocolate actually turned out. We watched the technique of the white chocolate application to the apple, and attempted to coat the apples evenly. Attempted is the key word there. I designated myself the cinnamon sugar sprinkler. You can't really mess that up too bad.
Pretty much out of chocolate by the last apple, we finished. We put them back upside down to dry, which didn't seem to help much. Michael and I kept looking at each other, like "Seriously? again!?"
In previous years, although they looked terrible, they always managed to still taste really good. This year however, that wasn't the case. The caramel to apple ratio was completely off. One slice would take anywhere from 3-5 minutes just to chew the caramel. Our jaws couldn't handle eating more than 2 slices.
We tried to laugh it off in the moment, but we were pretty disappointed. It's much easier to laugh at now that we have had a couple weeks to really process year after year of failure. I am determined to figure this thing out. By the time Ramona will begin to actually remember bits and pieces of her childhood, we surely must be able to have one good memory of successful caramel apples for her to store away, and reminisce on as an adult. If not, I am afraid we will have not only failed as caramel apple makers, but also as parents.
So please, send any tips and tricks our way. Because not even youtube could help our poor souls.
*Sadly we have no photos of the finished product... Which is probably a good thing.
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