October 1: Caramel Apples

Unwrapping (and eating) the caramels.

I hadn't made caramel apples in years!  I thought the kids might really enjoy the process and the taste.  After finding a crock-pot "recipe" for the caramel, the kids (including Brielle!) unwrapped 2 bags of caramels, ate a few, and tossed the rest in the crock pot with a 2 tablespoons of water to melt for a few hours, stirring every 20-30 minutes.  I punched some popsicle sticks into the bottom of some apples and let the kids start dipping.  Since it was Saturday, Seth was home and got in on the fun, too!  Unfortunately, despite repeated warnings, Koen got a little of the hot caramel on his hand and was done before he really started.  Be careful with hot caramel!  We let the apples rest on parchment paper and should have left them there.  I moved them to a plastic container, but then we had to wrestle them to unstick them from the plastic.  Don't make the same mistake!

Surprisingly, none of the kids really got too excited about eating the caramel apples.  We did end up slicing them to make it easier for the kids to eat, but they didn't like how chewy and sticky the caramel was.  We ended up sharing most of them with friends, and Seth was able to enjoy the rest on his own. 

Carefully unwrapping...

Dip and roll.



The finished product.