The Best Caramel Apples

Here are some things I've learned while making these caramel apples. 1. If the caramel is not sticking properly, you need to heat caramel up again to 248. The caramel will stick perfectly until it starts to cool then the butter separates and it will not stick. It really is useful working with a candy thermometer because you can monitor the temperature closely. With one of the batches I overheated the caramel when reheating and it turned into hard toffee. 2. Placing apples in the boiling water made them seep juice, will try them without following that step the next time. I had many extra apples and kept them near a cool door, that made the caramel hard but once it was placed in a warm room they started to soften again. Definitely worth trying, flavor is far superior compared to store purchased caramels. Also, it is useful to have a helper hold dipped apples upright to cool a moment before placing on parchment otherwise you will have the hot caramel puddle.

Sorry but the caramel slid right off the apples. I even took it off right as it reached 120 degrees C. Picture shows the best we got. You can see how the thick caramel pooled at the bottom. The opposite side of the apples is completly not covered with any caramel at all.

I was very impressed with this recipe! The consistency was wonderful and coated the apples beautifully. I also made sure to twirl the apples on the bottom of the pot (held at an angle) to remove any excess caramel. As written, it made enough to coat 12 medium apples and have enough left over to fill a small jelly jar (For spoon-fulls later ;) I get frustrated when searching for recipes only to find them calling for melting caramel candies. I rarely try recipes that have so few reviews, but this was definitely worth the try! Thank you for the great recipe!

I loved these! So much easier to make than I would have guessed. I made sure to drop my apples in boiling water for a bit and dry them off really well, letting them get nice and cool before i dipped them in the caramel. I think I over cooked the caramel just a tad - I did not have a candy thermometer! But I used a knife and cut slices and it was every bit as delicious and not as messy! LOL I used Karo Light Corn Syrup, but I think i would like to try it with Karo Dark syrup.

We used to drive 30 minutes to an orchard for their caramel apples because I hadnt found a recipe that was as good as the orchards. I found this recipe last year and the caramel tastes exactly the same. I had to figure out how to get the right technique down to get a nicely covered apple but I have it down. Once the caramel is done let it sit for about 5 minutes then use room temperature apples and roll the apple for about 10 seconds in the caramel and then pull it out of the caramel and let the caramel come off and roll it a bit. Place the apple on sugared parchment paper if you are making plain caramel apples. AWESOME...just made them tonight (first batch of the season) and the kids loved it!

Yum-o! So good, followed everything except (I know, I hate when people do this) I didn't dip apples in boiling water and I didn't have sweetened condensed milk. I subbed 1/4 cup 2% milk and it worked beautifully on the apples. Will definitely use again, I would have given it a 5 but I didn't follow everything as listed, so I can't really.

I Love what the ingredients produce. You can tell it will taste creamy. Excellent directions and foot note!

This took quite a long time to get to temperature because I was afraid to burn it. I used organic apples washed with vinegar and did not dip them in boiling water. The apples taste pretty good and the caramel stuck fine, but even better I had quite a bit of caramel left over so I poured it in a 8X8 square pan lined with parchment paper, put semi-sweet chocolate chips on it while it was still hot along with pecans and a bit of sea salt. That is really good!

it is the best recipe ever!!! just finished making them and they look fantastic.... thanks for the tip in step #3, I didn't have a candy thermometer so I just kept cheking my caramel by dropping a bit in cold water and sure enough, when the ball formed, I turned it off and it was done, I also didn't have vanilla extract on hand so I left it out and it still has an amazing taste... can't wait to try it next time with the vanilla extract and the different topping variations, thanks!!!!!

The caramel recipe alone gets five stars! It was fun to make and tasted delicious!! My friend took a bite and said "you didn't just melt squares to make these- this is REAL caramel, isn't it!" The caramel came off the apple when we ate them but it was so good. I sprinkled my finished product with kosher salt and they are the best I've ever had. Thank you for a great recipe!

Perfect. Thick, chewy caramel that coated the apples beautifully. Didn't slide off at all. I found that it only took me about 8 minutes on medium heat to reach 248 deg. So, be sure to use your thermometer rather than a stated time as I'm sure all stove tops heat differently. Lastly, I didn't actually dip my apples into boiling water to remove wax, and my apples still held the caramel well.

Made this twice so far and it has gone well both times. I think our first batch was best, and we didn't have a candy thermometer so used the bowl of water trick. I think we overcooked the second batch slightly, our error not the recipe's. Thank you for posting this recipe. It took a long time to find it through all the "unwrapped 16 store bought caramels and melt..." versions.

Followed the directions precisely and the results were precisely awesome. Made 9 apples and poured the rest over some fresh popped popcorn and it was awesome too. The best thing about this caramel is that it is firm enough to stick well, but stays soft enough to easily bite through its creamy goodness.

I tasted the caramel before adding the vanilla it was so good and buttery that I cut the vanilla in half. I like a more buttery tasting caramel. This really is the very best caramel apple I have ever had. I just had one from Rocky Mounyain Choco. It had absolutely nothing on this recipe. I will never buy already made caramel apples again. This was so good I had to give them away because I would have went into a coma eating them. Lol. One other thing is the recipe says med. heat , I had my electric oven on 5 and it took more like 45 mins to an hour before the caramel was ready, and it never passed the cold water test but, the candy thermometer did go up more when I slowed the stirring down . The less I stirred it the hotter it became. I did use a nonstick pan for easy clean up. I let the caramel hardened in the freezer for a few minutes before wrapping them. They became harder and easier to wrap and they will actually soften in room temperature. This is so good it's crazy unbelievable. I say it qualifies as a #sinfullydelish dessert.

This was GREAT! Among all the recipes for caramel apples that just have you melting caramel, this was an exciting find. I tried it and had perfect caramel the first try, and a lot easier that I had anticipated. Great recipe. Didn't change a thing. LOVED IT!

The flavor was excellent, but 248 is too high. I wouldn't go over 240 if I were to make it again. The caramel was very hard.

Made too much caramel for only 8 apples, have too much left over. Also wasnt really the caramel taste i expected. The dipping in boiling water nonsense made my apples softer than i expected. Overall, pkay, but wont use this recipe again.

It felt like a long time between waiting on the candy thermometer to go from 225 to 248 but I'm glad I waited it out. Keep stirring!. Once you get to 248 degrees, it's pretty simple. I poured the remainder on pretzels. There is alot of caramel left over. I bet I could have made 4 or more additional apples. It is very delicious! I also boiled water prior, dipped each apple for 4-6 secondseach, and wiped wax away with paper towels. Caramel stuck no problem.

I used this recipe for the second time in the past month. I stumbled across it looking for a better recipe than I used last year. The reason I wanted to try it was because I didn't have to use Carmel and wanted them to taste homemade. Well I hit the jackpot. It was easy and delicious. My family & friends LOVE IT!!!!!!

I followed the recipe to the T , but this carmel "sauce" wouldn't stick to the apple even the ones I dipped in hot water to take the wax off of. A candy thermometer was used with this recipe that turned out to tasting great, just not a good one to cover apples. It's great for an ice cream topping.

I have become famous with my family, neighbors, N my daughter-in-law's co-workers!

This was my first time using a candy thermometer. I was very careful to take it off the heat right at 248°, but I ended up with caramel that was far too hard for eating. The recipe is delicious, but next time I will only take the caramel to 245°. Also, take heed to work very quickly when dipping the apples - by apple #5 the caramel was too thick for a smooth coat.

I followed the recipe and the caramel tasted great. Just like other reviewers, I struggled with it setting up a little too quick and the caramel was a little too hard for my taste. Next time I think I will stop a little closer to soft ball temperature. The left over I put in a silicone candy mold that I sprayed with a little cooking spray and they came out great.

I tripled this recipe for my Cub Scouts, they loved it! I brought it to the meeting in a large crock pot (set on warm) and had the boys dip the apples themselves . Make sure you de-wax your apples before dipping by dropping them in boiling water and rubbing the wax off with a paper towel.

FANTASTIC homemade caramel apple recipe. The reason for boiling the apples is to remove any food grade wax that may be coating them. (can probably skip this step if you sourced your apples directly from an orchard or the tree!) otherwise this step will help the caramel stick. If you do not boil off wax 1st hot caramel will melt it and cause wax and caramel to "slide" off as some people experienced. Heated sauce on my stove set at 8.0 until boiling, then reduced heat to 3.0 and continued boiling while stirring basically nonstop with wire wisk. (ok to leave for 10-15 sec to grab something quick) After about 20 min, temp was not rising above 240° so I increased stove to 3.5 for 5 minutes then 4.0 for 5 minutes. I'm not sure if my thermometer is off, but I was not getting the "ball effect" when dropping caramel into cold water, so I continued to heat until temp of 255° and then IMMEDIATELY turned heat to low. People who get hard or toffee like caramel are letting it get too hot. (Its science / chemistry people!) the hotter it gets, the harder the result when cool. (make peanut brittle!) No prob coating apples in caramel. Spin-dip them and cont twirling above pan 10 sec with the stick straight up, then horizontally 10-20 sec and finally teirl upright 10-20 sec then place on paper. Coating in nut topping was kind of tricky. After just a few seconds the nuts would not "stick" and I had to help by "pressing " the nuts into the apple (kinda burned my fingers) A+++

Love this recipe. The first time I made it I think I cooked it a bit too long, and then let it cool too long. It was very thick and a little too hard once on the apples. It had to be warmed up a bit before cutting. The second time I took it off at about 245-246 degrees and dipped apples once the bubbles subsided. PERFECT!! Everyone loved them, young and old!

Mixing the ingridients was the easiest part. However, covering the apples with the caramel was somewhat if a challenge, because it caramel thinkens immediatly! Suggesting: have everything prepared, so when the caramel is ready... You dip the apple in the caramel:)

Used dark brown sugar and a mixture of dark and light corn syrup because that's what I had on hand. So delicious and fairly easy but it definitely didn't take 25-30 minutes for the caramel to come to temp so just keep an eye on your thermometer. I will never go back to melting store-bought caramels for apples nor will I bother experimenting with any different recipes. So good!

I make hard candy apples all the time so i dipped them in boiling water with 2 cups of apple cider vinegar. Only about 8 secs to remove the wax. I used a silicone mat instead of parchment paper so that i wouldn't have a puddle of caramel. Be sure to bring your mix to 248 (soft ball) and dip quick if not your caramel will not stick to your apples

Fantastic recipe, just what I was looking for! To the person who gave it a bad rating for the caramel sliding off, it was your fault. You need to put the apples in boiling water for 30 seconds to remove the wax. If you don't the caramel won't stick. This is true for any caramel apples. To anyone wanting to try homemade caramel apples give this recipe a try!

Made with my children. The caramel is absolutely delicious!

This was absolutely delicious. This was also my very first time EVER making caramel--or anything that required a candy thermometer, and it turned out perfectly! I even forgot to add the vanilla and no one even noticed. I did use DARK brown sugar so the caramel would have rich flavor, maybe that's why I didn't notice. You do have to be patient to get the temp up to 248 and on my stove it took about half an hour of stirring and standing. I used the leftover caramel to dip big pretzels in and drizzled chocolate over. Yum! I would definitely make again.

This caramel turned out great. I followed the recipe exactly and even had enough left over to make caramels to eat seperately!

Tryed this today, not sure what went wrong maybe the 248 degrees was to hot but carmel taste great but is just a little to hard! I have to slice the apples to eat and carmel falls off apples, maybe I need a new candy thermometer or just don't cook to that temperature?

Made these last year for the Halloween Party making them again this year They were so good last year :P

Love this recipe! I poured boiling hot water over my apples while they were in a strainer instead of putting them in the boiling water for a couple of seconds and it worked great! I didn't have a candy thermometer, but dropping the caramel into the cold water worked perfectly for telling when to take it off the heat! Something I found while coating the apples, is that the ones that I coated first had a lot more caramel slide off. To fix this I coated the apples and then put myself somewhere cold while spinning then upside down slowly so the caramel hardens while on the apple and less slides off once placed on the tray.

I'm not sure why the recipe tells you to dip the apples in boiling water?? The caramel will stick better if you chill the apples thoroughly first.

classic caramel apple... everyone loved them!

I followed the recipe exactly except I made half the amount. I happened to have 1/2 can condensed milk in the fridge that I needed to use lol! This tasted absolutely great!! Best caramel apples I've ever made!!

These worked out perfectly and were delicious. I added boiling water to the leftover caramel and turned it into pancake syrup. Delicious and wonderfully soft and chewy.

Loved it ...made some for my grand daughters birthday party....everyone loved then ... 5 stars from me.

I give this caramel 3 stars because it hardened TOO quickly. I followed the recipe to a T, did not scold the caramel, yet it was already stiffening before I could dip my apples. Also, the caramel was too hard to enjoy eating.

Wonderful! Followed directions and went perfect!

We have had no issues with this recipe at all! I love it and it makes a beautiful coating did the apples :)

Delicious! My family loved the caramel apples and ate all the extra caramel out of the pot.

Turned out amazing!

These were easy to make and very delicious! After the caramel set I followed with melted bittersweet chocolate and finished them off with Heath, chopped candy corn or a white chocolate drizzle.

We loved these! A friend told us where to find the recipe after she brought some over, so my kids and I tried these tonight. We don’t have a candy thermometer, so I used the water trick, and I’m still not sure I got that 100% right. The caramel tasted unbelievable, but it did pool considerably at the bottom of the apples. For most of them, I went back over the apples with a second try after the caramel had cooled about 15 minutes. Ours definitely did not set up too quickly, even though it does have a nice thick texture. After I refrigerated the apples for 15 minutes, I pulled them back out and used my hands to pat the caramel back on them it was still pliable. Then we sliced and ate the apples. The caramel had to be held onto the slice, but they were so unbelievably delicious no one minded. Several of them we sort of frosted with melted chocolate chips after we pulled them out of the fridge, and I think as the chocolate cools and sets it may hold the caramel in shape better. I was nervous about burning the caramel on the stove, so it took me about 35 minutes of stirring and boiling at medium heat. Don’t worry if as you’re boiling the caramel, darker flecks appear, like little brown crumbs in the caramel. That happened with mine, but they cooked back out by the time I was done. My kids and I all thought this was five stars!!

These were absolutely delicious! The caramel was perfect. I dipped the caramel apples in toasted pecans & mini-chocolate chips ... was a nice touch. Really impressed with how good the caramel was! Thanks for the recipe!

First time making caramel apples and these are delicious! I think having cold apples is the key to the caramel not slipping off. Definitely an easy recipe.

I didn't change a THING, and the caramel stuck to my apples perfectly, and tasted amazing! As the caramel set up more, I even drizzled more caramel on the apples. And, wrapped what was left in waxed paper. PERFECT caramels!

If you want stickier caramel, lessen the amount of corn syrup. A Tbsp or two so will do. The flavour can't be beat though!

Great simple recipe! I would recommend it!!

Perfect caramel! Worked beautifully and was delicious

I added 1/2 cup of maple syrup. So yummy

Excellent recipe. Tastes yummy. I think it goes much easier with two people. One to dip apples and one to decorate :-)

Still Making These, This is the best Recipe

This recipe was amazing! The caramel syrup didn't turn into a ball when I dropped it in the cold water, but it tasted amazing anyway. I cut the apples into cubes to make bite-sized pieces! That's better if you just want a quick, tasty snack, or an appetizer for dessert! Definitely.maje this, you won't be disappointed!

I followed directions exactly as stated, and WOW! Easy to make and absolutely delicious! No problem with carmel sliding off apples, perfect consistency delicious flavor. Will definitely be making these again

These caramel apples are delicious. Followed the recipe exactly and did not have any problems. I used organic apples and did not need to remove any wax but did take them cold from the refrigerator and wiped them dry. I have an induction stove and melted everything on a seven and then turned it down to a five to bring to a boil and let it come up to 235 degrees and the caramel was ready. I also did the cold water trick and it formed a ball! Carmel is so tasty! We made 13 coated apples and had caramel left over for at least five more! We are letting the leftover Carmel sit and will make candies out of them.

I followed the recipe exactly and I found it too hard to bite through. Hardball is too hard and thick. It tasted yummy, but not as good as I hoped for. I ended up smoothing out the extra on greased parchment, cut it into small squares, speed it on chocolate and made mini score bars. This recipe was not for me

Theses are better than the fairs Caremark apples!!!

Underwhelmed...dries super hard. Expected more from this recipe than same results as melting store bought caramels.

This recipe was spot on. Delicious! Amazing. Follow it exactly and use a candy thermometer. It took about 36 minutes for me to get to 248 degrees. You have to be ready to move fast when the temperature hits 248. Getting the nuts to stick was tricky. The flavor is so yummy. Real caramel.

It takes me at least 20-30minutes to prepare the ingredients so I suggest holding off on pre-heating the oven

very easy thanks for the helpful hints

I agree, they're pretty fantastic!

Absolutely easy and no problem - just make sure you follow the directions, and an added tip is to refrigerate them also after boiling them in water and drying them! I covered them VERY QUICKLY with any toppings I had - pretzels, peanuts, Maldon Sea Salt - though the chocolate chips started to melt a bit! Great!

I was very impressed with how this recipe turned out! This is the first carmel apple recipe I've seen that doesnt use pre made carmel. I LOVE it. I would deffinetly make these again.

Recipe worked great. I washed the apples in cold water and then dried them well. Stuck the sticks in and stuck them in the fridge. I made the caramel by the directions but added a pinch of kosher salt....just for balance not salt taste. I may have taken it over the temp a bit, but not to the point of being hard candy. They were Delicious and the kids loved em!

No changes, just added toppings, and yes I would make it again!

So when I originally made these apples I used Wholesome organic light corn syrup and the carmel kept falling off the apples. Even though we boiled the apples before hand. So this time I used Karo light corn syrup and reduced the amount from 1 cup to 3/4 cup and they came out amazing!!!!! The carmel was NOT runny and stuck to the apple perfectly!!

Delicious!!! The caramel was very easy to make and had such a rich flavor. I cut my apples in half and spooned some out of the middle and then poured the caramel in. This was such an easy way to make caramel apples!

Easy because all ingredients get added at the same time! Kids loved them!

I ended up. 1- using organic apples just because they were the only small ones and they worked well without any treatment beforehand because they don’t seem to have a wax layer. 2) I probably went a degree or 2 too low on accident but then put it in a small crock pot (I have a 3 pot crock pot) for 2 hours doing caramel apples and it worked great. I think it got cooked a little more and stayed at a good temperature for my Halloween make your own apples work station. This is a keeper for sure!

Excellent

Sooo good! Made these for halloween treats for my fav kids!

so good, We had too much, and ended up pouring the leftovers on a tray, lined with parchment paper and just ate pieces of caramel.

I've made previously just melting the Kraft caramels but nothing better than homemade! Thank you for the recipe :)

Tried this recipe after a different one failed me. This recipe is simple to make and tastes great. I followed the recipe exactly. We made 10 apples and had a little left over.

Amazing!

I loved the look of these apples, and they were very easy to make. I thought that these apples would turn out great with their exceptional look and consistency however, when I bit into one Apple it was extremely hard, and unbelievably sugary.

Perfect recipe for caramel apples! Best I've ever tried.

Fun-tastic! The caramel was perfect.. Wish i had more than 8 apples as there are still lots of the yummy caramel.. Thank you for sharing this recipe..

Tip: careful with brown sugar! I made this recipe with white sugar 5 times, each batch was amazing, thick and flavorful and didn't slide of the apples. Last time I tried using brown sugar and the caramel curdled :( it still tastes good but looks horrible, with lumps. After some research found that sometimes molasses in brown sugar cause milk to curdle.

I loved this recipe! Worked flawlessly the 1st time I tried it. My kids and neighbor kids love them so much! Yummy yummy

Delicious tasting caramel. Keep stirring. Took about 20 minutes of stirring. Wonderful taste!

The caramel turned out great. The caramel apples, not so much. I used the leftover caramel to make turtle brownies. So good!!

Really easy to make, it turned out pretty good!!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe?? I must say that I dipped the apples in white chocolate after the caramel and added sprinkles. My apples were a hit!!!

Ok so I found a very similiar recipe online from taste of home website, only it had 1/2 cup butter and 1 tsp vanilla, I like the idea of cutting down some calories, so delish! Toasted some pecans and salted them and did some with peanuts and drizzled with chocolate. Had some left over caramel as expected as you need enough to dunk them. I put the remaining in a pan and made soft caramels :)

Love this soooooooooooo yummy! !!!!

The caramel is delicious. Mine got a little dark and hard. But I'm fine with that cause it tastes like score bar toffee. A couple things I might change next time so it turns out better are: 1) Use white sugar not brown, and 2) Add a half cup of water so that the sugar cooks more evenly. I have a ceramic stove top that gets very hot, so it was ready in ten minutes. I'm gonna try it again at a lower heat next time.

This is the best recipe I have tried. Smooth creamy caramel. Definitely have to coat fast but stuck beautifully and cooled in about 30 seconds to set down so I could do the next one.

I forgot the vanilla and still perfect. Left over Carmel dipped in grapes.. also gooooood.. lol or just drop for carmel candy. Tip use silicone mat.. no mess. No sticking.

This recipe requires moderate baking/cooking skills. I got frustrated a lot trying to get the caramel to stick; however, once I did it was smooth sailing. I didn’t try any but I heard they were delicious.

Easier recipe I have done. The caramel actually sticks to the apples and forms evenly over the apples. It takes timing and skill to add topping with you have "helpers" in the kitchen, but I'm so happy!

Love it! and very easy. Followed direction exactly..I don't know if I had my heat to High but I came to temp and my caramel was too blonde so I lowered the heat to maintain temp and continued to cook while stirring until I reach proper color. Apples look amazing plus I had caramel left over for coffee or ice cream etc..dont skip the dipping In boiling water this is a huge step you can do it the day before but make sure you do it.

I followed exactly- thermometer and all. My husband described the caramel as having made Worthers. SO. HARD. Caramel apples weren't edible.

I’d give it a five star for the taste, but a three for the Carmel sticking... Or not sticking in this case.. It was messy and fun though!