Caramel Apples

 

My grandson called me the other day and wanted to know why he couldn't find my caramel apple recipe on the blog! Well I was flabbbergasted as I realized that I had never posted it! And seeing how we are already a third of the way through fall,  I thought now is the perfect time. Thanks, Isaac! 

There are tons of beautiful caramel apples on the web. Today I am sharing with you how I make mine! 

Five simple ingredients of, butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla are all you need to cook up this sweet confectionery treat.

I couldn't believe my luck at finding a pack of these adorable treat sticks in my sugar supplies. You can always use candy apple sticks or popsicle sticks as well.

After thoroughly washing and drying apples, insert sticks. I use a dab of dish soap to wash my apples and I also wash my tomatoes and citrus fruits this way and have for many years. 

Now let's make some caramel! Melt butter over low heat. Stir in corn syrup and then condensed milk.

Attach candy thermometer and crank up the heat to medium, stirring candy mixture constantly.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Set aside to cool 15 to 20 minutes so the caramel won't slide right off the apples!

You can do a dip test to see if the caramel has thickened up enough to adhere to apple.

Yep! It's just right. Dip and then place on parchment lined pan.

If you look closely at the core, you can see the juice sizzle a tiny bit as you dip the apples!

Oh yum!! We did it! 🍏

Y'all! Ain't these perty?!

It's time to dig in and enjoy!

Caramel Apples

12 medium Granny Smith apples

Caramel Recipe

2 sticks (1 cup) butter

2 1/4 cups brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup light corn syrup

1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a heavy saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Stir in brown sugar, then add corn syrup and condensed milk, mixing well.

Clip on your candy thermometer while making sure the tip does not touch bottom of pan. 

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until temperature reaches 246 degrees F. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Set aside for 15-20 minutes to cool slightly.

While caramel is cooling, wash apples and dry thoroughly. I use a dab of dish soap to wash mine.

Insert sticks into apples.

Line a pan with parchment paper.

By now, caramel should be ready for dipping. Test an apple to see if caramel adheres without sliding off. 

Dip apples and place on parchment paper.

I made 6 caramel apples and poured up the other half so my sweet hubby could have his favorite caramels! 😋

Happy Fall Y'all!

John 3:16

'til we sweet again, Karen! 💗

Happy Fall Y'all Candy Corn Flower Pops

The first day of Fall is almost here!

Or should I say, autumnal equinox?

We experience two equinoxes each year with the first one being in March and the other one in September. Equinox -or equal night- is when the entire earth will share roughly the same amount of daytime and nighttime! How cool is that?!

So to celebrate the changing of the season, of course we need a sweet treat. Then I found this adorable candy corn craft at the Resourceful Mama, and I thought it would make a fun and easy pop! It did!

I remembered that Bakerella made these flower cake pops a few years back. But mine involve melting the candies rather than placing them on a cake pop..soooo here they are!

This isn't the first time I've melted candy corn. Check out my Christmas Tree Pops for another fun treat! 

You will need candy corn-i prefer Jelly Belly brand as they melt better-Peanut M&Ms, and green lollipop sticks.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

Place six candies on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Place in oven for five minutes. If after five minutes the candies aren't soft enough to insert lollipop stick, return to oven for just a few more seconds and try again.

 Remove from oven and immediately insert lollipop stick. Twist and twirl the stick to get a little of the melted candy to coat the stick so it will..well, stick!

Now place the M&M in the center of flower and press gently to set.

  Ahhh..these turned out so cute! Bright and sunny!

Thanks for stopping by today!

'til we sweet again, Karen💗

Sugartown Sweets' Graham Cracker Pumpkin Patch

For me, October 31st, 2018, marks 7 years of creating fun and yummy, sweet eats and treats on my blog!!

Yay for Sugartown Sweets! Woo woo!

OK, enough of that!

Pumpkin patches or just plain ol' pumpkins?

I love both! And when I finished decorating these pumpkin patches, I realized they needed a little something more. Candy eyes..you see!

To create my pumpkin patch scene, I used:

Blue candy melts, chocolate melting wafers, graham cracker halves, chocolate sandwich cookies (smashed), leaves sprinkles, candy eyes, and candy pumpkins. I found these teensy little pumpkins at Publix in a clear round tub container.

 October! There's just something magical in the crisp, Autumn air..

And something so fun about jumping into a pile of colorful fall leaves..

And how about those childhood memories of carving bright orange pumpkins picked at the pumpkin patch and then roasting all those glorious seeds?! I loved getting to do this with my own kids and now I get to do it with my grandbabies!

For our craft, we begin by slicing our candy pumpkins in two with a sharp paring knife.

For our *dirt*, we crushed up a few chocolate sandwich cookies after we scraped off the filling. Yum-o!

Now we melt our chocolate and blue wafers in the microwave in 30 second increments on 50% power, stirring each time till melted smooth.

These graham cracker treats are so easy!

Let's spread the blue melted candy on the cracker with an icing spatula, sprinkle on a few leaves and place two pumpkins side by side. We'll let this sit on parchment paper for a few minutes till dry.

Now we'll spread some melted chocolate onto the bottoms of graham crackers and coat with cookie crumbs. And...we're done!

Do we love that we can make these lickety-split when the kiddos need that last minute treat for school, church, snack time or just because life should be sprinkled with fun?!

Yes we do!💗

Oh I love candy corn! But the pumpkins are fatter so you get a better bite! Dee-licious! 

These turned out cute, but they were just missing something..

There!! The eyes have it! 

What makes this candy maker happy? The reactions I get from little Lydia, my 4 year-old granddaughter. She squealed when she saw these and thoroughly enjoyed every bite!

  Happy Autumn Friends!

It's a Sweet Life, Karen 😊

Pumpkins on a Fence

So, I'm in need of a new camera..again!
C'mon Monday!

But until it arrives, my phone is doing double duty as chief operating photographer and my ever indispensable google box. Or is that triple duty? I mean, I do still use it to make calls and all.

How many cameras have bitten the (sugar) dust here in Sugartown Sweets' kitchen in the last 6 years? Hmmm, not sure. Better question, how many more will it take?! Will this one last? Do they even make a camera kitchen proof?

I dunno! So I asked these adorable pumpkins, but they're kinda on the fence. 😜 

These pumpkins!!

Let's have some fun with another Kit Kat craft.

You will need:

White chocolate Kit Kat bars-5 full size

Pumpkin decorations -1 pkg. 

 Green candy melts-about 1/2 cup

Candy eyes

Fall leaves sprinkles-a small pile 😉

~Makes 4 fence decorations~

Melt candy according to package directions. Using a toothpick, dip in melted candy and attach candy eyes to pumpkins.

Now break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar! Five to be exact for each fence. Apply some of the melted candy to two of those pieces and attach to three others as shown in photo below. Let set a minute to harden.

I used an icing spatula to spread a little 'grass' to bottom of fence posts and shook on some leaves sprinkles. Ahhh...Autumn, you are so good to me!

Let us take a moment for contemplation...

I am in love with these pumpkins. I think they are the cutest ones that Wilton makes!

That's it guys!

Thanks for stopping by!

Keeping life sweet, one treat at a time, Karen 😊

Kit Kat Pumpkins

As I'm typing this post, it is 73 degrees here in Georgia. With the promise of cooler weather and making new holiday season memories, I am eager to jump right in! Welcome to Fall, y'all! 

Last weekend was our first "leaf peeper" Saturday of the year and the leaves were already changing. Hubby and I drove up north of the city, drank apple cider, breathed in that fresh mountain air and saw plenty of those beautiful orange pumpkins.

Don't you just love all shapes and sizes of pumpkins? Me too! These babies happened when I dug down in my candy grab bag of goodies and found my favorite Autumn color.

I'm kinda stuck on Kit Kats right now and the fact that these little cuties take mere minutes to put together makes me love them even more!

 To make my candy pumpkins, I used snack sized orange Kit Kats, Tootsie Rolls, green fondant and large candy eyes.

Tools I used: small leaf cutter, fondant roller, small sharp knife, parchment paper.

To begin, I rolled out my green fondant and cut with leaf cutter. (My particular leaf cutter has been discontinued) You can find a similar leaf cutter here.

 I created the pumpkin stem by cutting a Tootsie Roll into 4 pieces as shown in photo below.

Tootsie Roll stems-

Fondant leaves-

Candy eyes-

Kit Kat pumpkins-

Place the leaf towards top center of Kit Kat bar. Gently pinch bottom of stem and press into leaf and candy bar. The Tootsie Roll is naturally tacky and will stick on its own!

 The eyes have it!

Originally I had not planned on adding eyes, but when I came across them and tried out a pair, they were just too cute not to!

*See* what I mean?! 😜 

You can make these with your own little pumpkins as I'm planning on doing next week!

Till next time!

Keeping life sweet, one treat at a time, Karen! 😊