Homemade caramel apples

Fall is my favorite time of year.  Not only because the weather is cooler (yay for sweatshirts!), the leaves are turning (so pretty!), the holidays are getting closer, but also the food is so good!

Take a look at my pumpkin bread from my last post, for example.  MMM.  Or apple cider.  Or hard cider.  Or mulled cider.  Or spiced wine.  Or apple ANYTHING.  Which includes....caramel apples.

When I set out to make my caramel apples, I wanted to make homemade caramel.  Just opening packages of caramel candy & melting it--that feels like cheating.  I also wanted to make homemade caramel without corn syrup (& that used heavy cream instead of evaporated milk, as I had bought a carton of heavy cream instead).  I stumbled across a recipe for chewy caramels & figured I could just dip the apples in the caramel before it cooled.

Surprise, it worked!  The caramel was a little more runny than normal caramel for apples...so I may play around with the recipe to thicken it up a little.  But boy is that some darn good caramel.  & very sweet, which may go with tart apples really well.

Caramel Apples:

Ingredients:
1 c. heavy cream
1 & 1/2 c. white sugar (I used cane sugar)
1/2 c. honey (I used Michigan pure raw honey)
7 Tbs. butter (one whole stick minus a slab), room temp  (I used unsalted butter because that is what I had)

Heat the honey & sugar in a pot on the stove on medium heat until melted & caramelized (it will darken in color & be really bubbly).  I let this cook to about 250 degrees on my candy thermometer (I highly recommend you use a candy thermometer..I usually use a combination of the candy thermometer & the spoon test).  While the sugar & honey are melting, wash off about 8-16 apples (double coating=8 apples) & stick them with a stick (I used short wooden skewer sticks, popsicle sticks will also work).  Also warm the cream to a simmer.

Once the sugars are caramelized, whisk in the butter, a slab at a time.  Then whisk in the cream a little at a time (it bubbles up).  Heat until the mixture reaches about 235-240 degrees (or "soft ball").  Remove from heat & let it cool a little.

Once the bubbles go down & the mix has cooled (1-2 minutes), take each apple & twirl it through the caramel.  Place on foil or wax paper (I used wax paper...the caramel still stuck to the paper, so it may have to be buttered or greased).  Let cool a couple minutes, then repeat the process for a second coating if you are doing so.  Let cool (may be refrigerated).

I haven't actually tried the caramel apples yet, but did lick the leftover caramel & it is REALLY good.  I may also try making the caramel as candies to hand out along with gifts at Christmas.  :)

EDIT:  So now that its been a day...  This recipe made very sticky caramel.  It may be because it wasn't cooked long enough nor to a high enough temp (it was roughly 235-240 degrees according to my candy thermometer).  Most of the caramel ended up pooled around the apples with a light coating on the apple.  Sticking the apples in the fridge made it near impossible to remove from the wax paper (although once it set out for a while at room temp, it loosened enough to remove an apple).  I need to play around with this recipe a bit to perfect it.