This Cat.  I am so thankful for her.  She has got to have the most quirk, out of anything I know.  The first day we had her at home, she hid behind the dishwasher… she also has some crazy sleeping positions.  I know you’re only supposed to get this much enjoyment out of dogs, but this cat rules.

Our Mirah…she’s turned into quite the lady.

-JVB

This week is national pancake week!  Now if I were eating gluten, I would tell you about the most wonderful pancake that my husband made me one morning. I was out of town for a couple of days and he was experimenting(cooking) in the kitchen and found this recipe. It’s called the Dutch Baby Pancake. You can find it here, here, here, or many other places. Since I can’t enjoy them though, I’m not going to talk about those pancakes today.

I’m here to talk about caramel apples, b/c they’re not only for fall weather.  These aren’t just any caramel apples though.  These turned out perfect. Not too hard, not to soft…just right.

Apple Pie Caramel Apples

Ingredients:

12 large apples. I chose half tart green apples and half sweet red
Caramel sauce…we’ll get to that
2 bags of white chocolate chips
1/2 superfine sugar with mixed in 1-2 tspns of cinnamon
Popsicle sticks ( I used chopsticks)
Candy Thermometer

I gave some away to friends, and just wrapped them in saran wrap with twine.

Caramel Recipe:

4 cups of sugar
1 can of evaporated milk
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 cup of unsalted butter
1 tsp. of Vanilla
2 cups of light corn syrup

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Start off with melting the butter in a heavy saucepan. Then add the sugar and syrup to the pan and combine on medium heat.  When it heats up to a rolling boil, slowly pour in milk and stir. It will feel like you’re stirring forever. Then stir some more, without ever adjusting the heat.  The color will slowly turn to caramel and the temperature should be about 240 Degrees. Remove from heat and add the vanilla. Stir in and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Transfer caramel to a bowl that can at least hold 3 cups.  Get a piece of parchment paper. Place on a cookie sheet.

Dip apples in caramel to fully cover. Let them drip off and scrape any left on the bottom with a knife. Let rest on parchment paper and repeat with the rest of apples.  Make sure you finish coating the apples before the caramel cools. When finished set in the fridge for 2-3 hours.

Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second intervals. Repeat the same process with the coating, dripping, and scraping off excess. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Let cool in fridge.

Try not to eat them all yourself. You will want to…

Enjoy!

-JVB