My fabulous sister - in - law taught me how to make caramel apples. So so yummy. We made them for our neighbors as gifts. I brought one to a family party where people enjoyed the deliciousness. Then my sister called me one day and asked if I wanted to earn some money... It depends on how... We (persnickety) need to send out gifts to our customers (retailers buying from them) and I thought about your apples... How many?... 350 Wow. I'll think about it and let you know. I looked up the recipe, priced things out, figured out the time etc. and decided to go for it, only if Kyle would help. We could earn some extra money, buy the kids a bunk bed etc. Well... I went to the Red Barn in Santaquin to buy apples. They were either tiny or huge. And I mean once you get caramel and chocolate on there... HUGE! So instead of getting 25+ to a batch, I was getting 12ish per single batch. We started doubling batches but couldn't do more than that because the caramel would start to harden before we could dip them all. We ended up buying twice the supplies that I planned on and it took twice the time... There were a lot of burns, sweat, and hours put into those apples. I'm not turned off from making them, but I am turned off from making them in large quantities! I did learn a lot and they turned out great! But never again :) Oh, the things we do for money!
Here is a small fraction of the disaster that I called my kitchen. I can't even explain what it was like to get my kitchen back, caramel mess free!!! Clean counters, emptied garbages, clean stove (we did have a caramel overflow once, wow that stuff is not fun (or easy) to clean up! It was quite difficult to maintain a normal eating schedule when my whole kitchen was taken over!
You may not be able to tell from the pic but the counters and stove are covered with caramel and caramel making supplies, the left of the sink was the chocolate dipping station, the right of the sink was the cinnamon sugar sprinkling station. The black stand was where the apples cooled after getting caramel or chocolate. The kitchen table was covered in apples at different stages of the process on wax paper.
Stirring, stirring, stirring. In order to not get dark spots or burned caramel you have to stir basically constantly FOREVER while it caramelized. I started watching Design Star online to pass the time. I'm not sure what this face is... but it does kind of sum it up, jk :)
Here are some waiting to be chocolatized or decorated.
We always caught her trying to dig into the cooled caramel. (don't worry Mom & Sara the stove is off and the pot is cooled :) She would dig her little nails in and try to get a taste.
Sneaky sneaky. She has put these #10 cans to use lately. They help give her a little extra boost to reach on top of the counter.
Smart smart girl. This is how she chose to eat her caramel apple. Just pull off the goods from the apple with her teeth :)
After being decorated and bagged.
The finished product. I must say I think they turned out be-utifully! 
Truth be told, my kids watched their share of movies while we worked on this project! And for some reason they like to lay down together in this cradle, which is the cradle I slept in as a baby!
Here are most of the completed boxes. Waiting to be shipped.
For my record this was the process. Pick the smallest apples.. wash and dry... put on table and put in stick... make caramel and cook until 'soft ball' ... dip and tap... turn upside down to harden.. once cooled dip in chocolate.... sprinkle with cinnamon... put upside down to harden... add cutsy decoration... let dry... bag and tie... TaDa a beautiful and absolutely delicious treat.
1 comment:
Holy Smokes! That is a TON of work, but way to go!! They look really darling and delicious! And Leylah looks like she was enjoying the whole process as well ;)
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