Caramel Apples

I love caramel. Also caramel apples.

I am honestly not totally sure where I came across this recipe the first time but it is easy to make and easy to remember.

1/2 Microwave caramel:

1/2 a stick of butter (1/4 cup)
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk.

Microwave for 6-8 min stirring every 2.

To make caramel apples I find it easier to start with cold apples so put the sticks in them and put them in the fridge the night before. If you don't have them cold it will still work but I think it helps the caramel set if they start cold. Also I like to work with smaller apples I find the big ones to be a bit overwhelming to try to sit down and eat and I prefer to have my caramel apples be on a more manageable scale.

One of the tricks for getting good coverage is to not only dip the apple but to spin it in the caramel and if you like the caramel up to the stick like my kids do have a spoon in hand to drizzle the caramel higher up the apple. Be sure to let the excess caramel drip off before putting it on the wax paper. I usually scrap the bottom free of caramel you will get enough drip from the sides to make your foot as the caramel sets.

 Any left over caramel goes on apple slices for a "right now" snack.

Gluten Free Crock Pot Apple Cobbler

I was looking for a quick and easy apple breakfast recipe and stumbled on this one Easy Breakfast Apple Cobbler from Food.com

So I decided to give it a shot. Only 5 ingredients, naturally gluten free, and I just set it and forget it and wake up to delicious hot apple breakfast. Sounds almost too good to be true.

I did modify mine slightly. 
I used white sugar rather than honey as I was apparently out, and added a handful of golden raisins.

Just be sure if you want it gluten free to use a gluten free granola. 

I would say to go with the honey over the sugar it caramelized and then started to burn a little. This might be a side effect of my crock pot which I think needs to be replaced and the low might not be cooking on low. I suspect this because the apples were a little bit more mush than a cobbler usually leaves them but that may be because I picked softer apples and you will want to be sure to use good sweet baking apples like Braeburn.

Baked Apple Chips

Baked Apple Chips

This was something new to me this year. I love to eat apple chips have never thought about making them before but when I found this recipe I figured I would give it a shot. I used four large apples rather than the 2 small recommended so I doubled the syrup as well. And used more lime than lemon in the syrup mix.

I was also not able to cut them as thinly as I should. You really want them paper thin. So they look a lot longer to crisp than the 1 hour spesified in the recipe. 

I was pretty sure using huge apples and doubling the recipe would give us enough to last us a while. I was wrong. They are already gone. 
 

Gluten Free Jewish Apple Cake

7 apples
2 cups plus 5 Tablespoons sugar 

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

2 3/4 cups gluten free all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup orange juice

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. grease a bundt pan. Peel, core and thinly slice the apples. Coat the apples with 5 Tbs of sugar and the cinnamon then set aside. Mix together gluten free flour, salt and baking powder in the large bowl. In a separate bowl- mix together orange juice, oil, sugar and vanilla then combine with the dry.     Add the eggs one at a time and mix well. Pour 1/3 of batter into bundt pan. top with 1/3 of the apple mixture. Repeat with remaining batter and apples to get 3 layers. Bake for approximately 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
  

Easy Caramel Glaze:
1/2 cup sweetened condenced milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter
Microwave for about 4 min stirring every two.