Full Disclosure: I received this product for free to try and review. As always, the opinions in this post are all my own and I am not being compensated for this post.
After my excitement about going apple picking earlier this Fall, it is probably no surprise to you that I feel like caramel apples are a fall food staple. They are always one of the first fall food items in stores, and they are a classic treat. Growing up, we always picked up some of these the first chance we got! Although, while I remember buying them at the store, and my dad eating them at home, I don’t actually remember ever eating them…or not a whole one at least. I’m not really sure why, I like both apples and caramel quite a lot, why wouldn’t I eat them together? Or maybe I did eat them and I just don’t really remember, I’m betting that is actually the case.
Though caramel apples were always a Fall staple in our house growing up, we never made them (that I remember). This may not seem all that surprising, but we made a LOT of things in the fall and winter at my house growing up. Aside from the usual birthday cakes and weekly chocolate chip cookies, there were pies, brownies, coffee cake, and of course a variety of Christmas cookies. So I’m actually kind of surprised that we never made caramel apples!
Recently, I was given a chance to try my hand at caramel apple making! Concord Foods sent me some of their Caramel Apple Wrap to try. One of the things that is definitely intimidating about making caramel apples is making the caramel. These handy things take care of those fears of hot melty (delicious) caramel dripping all over the place! These round sheets of caramel are meant to fit an apple so you don’t have to worry about cutting or dipping. Another convenient part about these is that the caramel is wrapped in pieces of parchment paper so you can use that to line the cookie sheet! The kit also comes with the the sticks for the caramel apples.
So, after apple picking, we decided to test them out. They were a bit harder to make fit the apple than I thought they would be – but we didn’t want them to be too sticky so we made sure they were refrigerated ahead of time as the instructions suggested.
We thought maybe they would melt down once we baked them – even though you don’t really bake them long – so we didn’t try too hard to smooth out the caramel. Unfortunately, we probably should have tried harder because they barely melted at all and we were afraid to leave them in longer because we didn’t want the apples to bake. So, they ended up turning looking pretty much the same as when we put them in the oven.
We had big plans to add toppings to the caramel apples while the caramel was warm, but it didn’t work so well. While the caramel was a little sticky it wasn’t enough to just sprinkle things on and assume it would stick. Everything had to basically be individually pressed in to the caramel. We did manage to make them kinda cute though.
The caramel did taste pretty good though, even though it didn’t look so pretty. Liquid caramel would have definitely been prettier, but these definitely have the easy factor going for them.
Even though we didn’t have great luck using the sheets to cover the apples I decided to try to use the caramel a different way. Sheets of caramel seem to have so many possibilities!
I thought that I could make caramel apple bites by wrapping slices of apple with strips of caramel. Sounds like a great idea, right? Well, unfortunately it didn’t turn out so well. They do look cute, and of course they didn’t taste bad they are still just caramel and apple, but it didn’t quite work as I had expected. Since the inside part of the apple is a softer and not as tactile as the skin, the caramel doesn’t stick. It just kind of slides right off. Maybe if I would have put a stick in these, like the caramel apples, it would have helped the caramel to stay in place but I’m not sure it would have solved the problem.
Overall they are a fun product, and I will definitely do some more experimenting with the sheets that I have left. If you are looking for a perfect, smooth and round caramel apple these might not be the best choice, but if you are looking for an easy and fun solution these are great!
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Concord Foods – the makers of this fun caramel – is hosting a photo contest! Post a photo of your caramel apple creation on their Facebook page and you could win up to $500! For more details, and how to enter, check out these links: http://www.concordfoods.com/caramel-apple-season/
http://www.concordfoods.com/caramel-apple-season-photo-contest/
Filed under: Words Tagged: | Caramel Apple, Product Review
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