Sugartown Sweets: August 2016

It is my candy coated opinion, that, while in WDW, you can never spend too much time gazing at the amazing Disney treats being made right before your very eyes!

Actually, "being made" is not the right term. Pampered, coddled, gently coaxed into being..yes, that's much more accurate. I just have to watch in wonder, and yes, even dream of working in a Disney candy kitchen!

Last week, I got to celebrate my birthday in the Magic Kingdom (52 and still lovin' it)! I was standing in the sweet Main Street Confectionery and staring all "sugar eyed" as I watched the candy makers creating and decorating Mickey Mouse rice krispie treats, caramel apples, pretzels and more.

They had these huge bowls and tubs filled with melted chocolate and sprinkles and M&Ms and jimmies and colored sugars! Then, after they dipped the treats in chocolate, they would place each one into a candy filled tub and cover the entire thing, gently patting and pressing, making sure it was completly smothered. The treats were left to rest as they would move on to the next one. This resting time allowed for the maximum amount of candies to "stick" to the chocolate coating. Wow!

I'm am hooked! I must make my own. Here I go.

Go with me won't you?!

Disney also dips lots of their sweets in caramel. I do too. Today, I am dipping my pretzels in peanut butter caramel. Click here for my recipe. I also have a yummy vanilla caramel recipe. Of course you can always just skip the caramel, but why would you want to?!

Pretzel rods are the salty base for our treats.

Perfect for all the yummy sweetness we'll be adding to them.

Five simple ingredients are needed for the peanut butter caramel. Brown sugar, corn syrup, sweetened condensed milk, peanut butter and vanilla.

See my complete recipe with photos here.

I poured my caramel into a quart size mason jar to make for easier dipping.

Let cool just a bit and then dip, dip, dip away.

Gently scrape excess caramel against the mouth of the jar.

This will help prevent "caramel spread".

Lay dipped pretzels on parchment paper sprayed lightly with non-stick cooking spray.

I only dipped 21 pretzels and used about half the caramel. So I poured the remaining caramel into a parchment lined loaf pan lightly sprayed with non-stick spray. Voila, peanut butter caramels for snacking! :)