We went to the pumpkin patch this year and bought pumpkins! However, 4 days after Halloween, they still sit uncarved. We will probably carve something clever into them for Thanksgiving. (stay tuned for that) But I WISH I’d have been able to carve the following for my oldest. He’d LOVE it! *sigh*
Maybe Next Year
A friend of mine posted a recipe on facebook that appeared genius! Caramel Apple Bites!
Materials Gathered:
Step 1
Make apple rounds with melon baller.
I’d like to thank the SOPs of my beloved Applebee’s for teaching me the art of making appleballs. it can be tricky, and not everyone will make them as beautifully as me.
Step 2
INSERT one candy stick into each apple round. Cover plate with waxed paper; spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
Step 3
PLACE caramel bits in medium saucepan. Add water; cook on medium-low heat 3 min. or until caramel bits are completely melted, stirring constantly.
3 minutes didn’t cut it for me, because at that mark, I was here:
And at 4 minutes:
Step 4
DIP apples into melted caramel until evenly coated, spooning caramel over apples if necessary. Allow excess caramel to drip off. Scrape bottoms of apples; place on prepared plate.
So what I ended up with looked like apples on a stick swimming in a pool of caramel. Not exactly like the picture that was included with the recipe:
My suggestion would be to let the caramel cool down for maybe 2 or 3 minutes before you start dipping apples. The later apples looked much better, and the caramel didn’t run off as bad.
Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Remove from refrigerator 15 min. before serving. Store any leftover apples in refrigerator
They still ended up being delicious, and convenient bite size snacks. Yummy!!!
* Could also be used with this candy apple recipe
2 cups white sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups water
8 drops red food coloring
1. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Insert craft sticks into whole, stemmed apples.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine sugar, corn syrup and water. Heat to 300 to 310 degrees F (149 to 154 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms hard, brittle threads. Remove from heat and stir in food coloring.
3. Dip apple pieces in caramel and let stand to set.
Recipe came from : https://www.facebook.com/groups/abettermewithskinnycare/
Back to Halloween!
We started out Halloween festivities at the library kid fest. It was lots of fun and I look forward to going to the next one. The big one dressed as a devil. (Once again, I nailed the makeup, but you cant see it from the photo) The little one was batman. They had fun games and crafts. The kids loved it!
Next event? Pumpkin patch of course! A lot of rain led to a lot of the pumpkins rotting this year. We got a few pumpkins, after deciding between round, tall, deformed, bumpy, stemmed, standing quality, etc. 🙂 The big one has a super special connection to this pumpkin patch because he helped the church unload them! We’ll be carving them soon, stay tuned for that fun!
MamaBear 