Caramel Apples

  • Level: Intermediate
  • Yield: 8 apples
  • Total: 40 min
  • Prep: 10 min
  • Inactive: 20 min
  • Cook: 10 min
Advertisement

Ingredients

8 small apples, such as, Granny Smith or macoun

2 cups light brown sugar

1 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Toppings of choice, optional, recipes follow

Directions

  1. Remove the stems from the apples and scrub them under warm water and dry them. Insert a chopstick through the top of the apple all the way to the top and line a baking sheet with waxed paper, set aside.
  2. Put the sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup, and cream in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, swirling the pan but not stirring, until the mixture reaches 250 degrees F (firm ball stage) on a candy thermometer. Pull pan from the heat and stir in the butter. Tilt the saucepan and dip and spin each apple into the caramel, covering about 3/4 of the apple. Place on the prepared baking sheet until set.
  3. If using a topping spread the topping out on a sheet pan or wax paper and immediately roll the caramel coated apples in the topping. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet until set.
  1. Topping 1:
  2. 2 cups chocolate wafers, graham crackers, or vanilla wafers
  3. Put the wafers or cracker of choice in a plastic storage bag and smash until coarse.
  1. Topping 2:
  2. 2 cups walnuts or pecans, toasted
  3. 1/3 cup dried cranberries
  4. 1 tablespoon finely chopped crystallized ginger
  5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  6. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant and brown, about 8 minutes. Pulse the nuts, cranberries, and ginger in a food processor until mixture resembles very coarse sand.

Let's Get Cooking!

Sign up for the Recipe of the Day newsletter to receive editor-picked recipes,tips and videos delivered to your inbox daily. Privacy Policy

Thanks for subscribing to the Recipe of the Day newsletter. Check out all our other great newsletters from Easy Recipes, Healthy Eating Ideas and Chef Recipe Videos.

We're sorry, there was an error signing you up. Please try again later.

Advertisement

Anonymous

The flavor was good, hence the one star. I was really looking forward to bringing these to a party. I've used Alton Brown's recipes before, and they have produced excellent results. Not this time. The caramel never reached 250, the pot which was large almost boiled over, and the caramel was thin and slid off of the granny smith apples, which I had place in hot water, scrubbed and dried. Incidentally, the 4 Fuji apples I had in the fruit bowl and cleaned the same way did take a thin, barely evident coat of caramel. If we were a household that ate a TON of ice cream and covered it in caramel sauce, this recipe wouldn't be a tremendous waste of time and money. I'd also like to say that I used an Emeril Lagasse nonstick pot for these. His pans come with instructions not to heat them on high. What kind of pans can't you heat on high? I mean really! I wish I could afford to replace all of them. Now I am late for the party and have to spend even more money so that I can bring something.

See All Reviews