A fun and delicious recipe for a family favorite treat - caramel apples

One way to enjoy the delicious flavors of apples and caramel while also enjoying a fun activity is to make some caramel apples. Caramel apples are simply apples on a stick, dipped in caramel. They are easy and fun to make, and delicious to eat. Get a few of your friends together, and with some adult help and supervision and have a great time making and eating caramel apples.

There are two ways to coat your apples in caramel. You can make your own caramel sauce, which is a bit more complex. Your other option is to melt caramels in water in the microwave. To melt the caramels in a microwave, you will need approximately 14 ounces of caramels and melt with 2 tablespoons milk or water in a microwave safe bowl for a minute or until melted.

To make your own caramel sauce you will need the following:

8 firm apples
8 popsicle sticks
1.5 cups brown sugar
1.5 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons milk or water
.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
chopped nuts, sprinkles, chocolate chips, or other topping (optional)

Start by carefully washing and drying your apples. Remove the stems, and push the popsicle stick into the top of the apple where the stem used to be.

Next make your caramel. Place all of the ingredients, excepting the vanilla extract, in a saucepan and cook over medium heat. As your caramel sauce is cooking, boil water, which you will put in a second container, which you will use to keep the caramel warm after it is finished cooking so you can dip your apples. Stir your caramel sauce, until it reaches 236 degrees Fahrenheit. Once your caramel sauce is cooked to the appropriate temperature, remove your pot, and your second container with hot water from the heat source. Put the pot of caramel into the boiling water, then stir in the vanilla extract.

Once you have made your caramel sauce it is time to coat your apples in the caramel. Take your apple by the popsicle stick and dip it into the liquid caramel. Tilt the pot and roll the apple as necessary to fully coat the apple. You will have to work pretty quickly, since the caramel tends to harden fairly quickly. If you want to dip you apples in the nuts or sprinkles, have them waiting in a bowl, and dip your caramel coated apple into the chopped nuts or sprinkles immediately after coating the apple in caramel sauce. Once you apple is coated, put the apple on a foil covered cookie sheet. After all of your apples are dipped in caramel and placed on the tray, put the tray in the refrigerator to cool for a bit.

Once the caramel has cooled, and solidified on the apples remove from the refrigerator and enjoy.

Nutty Monkey Fruit Salad

Ingredients
Apples
Oranges
Bananas
Shredded coconut
Grapes

Cut the apples, oranges, and bananas into bite-sized pieces.  Peel the apples if you like and discard the cores and other tough areas.  Combine in a large bowl. Add the grapes and stir in 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of shredded coconut.