I've been cooking recipes out of my new Gooseberry Patch cookbook with a lot of success. I was feeling confident with my skills and tried the caramel apple recipe. (These two beautiful photos are not my end product but from the experts at Southern Living and Country Living magazines.)
It was tiresome opening 100 packages of small caramel candies and my bag of apples looked pretty battered. I should have picked out the apples individually. But I was not daunted yet. The candy melting went well and I was careful not to get burned however, trying to get the apple covered took me a few tries. What worked best was tilting the pot on it's side letting the caramel pool then swirling the apple into it. You must pop any bubbles that form on the apple right away or you will end up with a seriously afflicted looking ball that no one will eat.
The problems began when I tried removing the apples from the buttered wax paper after they had cooled in the fridge. The paper would not come off! I eventually used kitchen shears to cut the apples away. I sent 4 wax paper bottomed apples to my neighbors, I did include a warning.
The clean up was the worst part. Getting the caramel to come off my plastic spoon, ladle, pot, and cake stand took A LOT of hot water and scraping. Caramel apples will not be one of my family's traditions.
Never attempted caramel apples altho they are one of my daughters favorites. After your post I think I will just pick them up at the farmer's market and such - sounds like way too much work and hassle. Hope they were yummy tho!
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