Forget Halloween – it’s National Caramel Apple Day!
If you’re sick of carving pumpkins every year, why not try creating your own caramel apple to celebrate the national day! It’s cheap to do, fun, Halloween-themed and you get to eat it afterwards! Never heard of caramel apples or taffy apples? They are basically created by dipping or rolling apples-on-a-stick in hot caramel and sometimes, then, rolling them in nuts or other small savouries or confections depending on what you like, and then letting them cool.
This national day shares the 31st October with Halloween and caramel apples are often (but less frequently these days) associated with the spooky-seasonal event. In terms of the origin of the day…the red candy apple came first but research says that caramel apples were invented by Dan Walker, a sales representative for Kraft Foods, in the 1950s. Shops that tend to sell toffee apples at this time of year are: ASDA, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose and so on – but why not make your own which is so much more fun!
Here are the basic steps to creating your own caramel apple:
- The first thing you need to do is buy your favourite type of apple whether it be Granny Smiths, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious or Honeycrisp.
- Remove the stem from each apple and press a craft stick into the top. Butter a baking sheet.
- Place caramels and milk in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave 2 minutes, stirring once. Allow to cool briefly.
- Roll each apple quickly in caramel sauce until well coated.
- Place on prepared sheet to set.
You can add pretty much anything to your caramel apples! Below I’ve listed some ideas that you could choose to do. Have fun!
- Toffee popcorn
-
Mini marshmallows
- Crushed pretzels
- White chocolate
- Nuts
- Toasted shredded coconut
- Crushed Oreo cookies
- Dried cranberries
- Chopped walnuts
- Sprinkles
Remember: you can pretty much add anything you want onto your caramel apples! Try experimenting and not just sticking with the typical sweet things -why not try more savoury options! It works for pancakes!