Patience is not my virtue

Technically, what I made this week doesn't count as a "baked good" (there is absolutely no baking involved). I know this is a blog about baking so these might seem out of place, but they are so delicious, I had to share them! Also these count as one of my "Super Awesome Ideas" - I actually said those words out loud - so to continue with the trend from my last post, here they are! Chocolate Dipped Candy Apples.

A couple weekends ago, I went apple picking and brought home 4 pounds of crisp, juicy, fresh empire apples. Even though I'd been eating them almost every day since then, I still had an outrageous number of apples left! So, before they went bad, I decided to make something with them.

I could have made a crumble, a pie, or even applesauce (which is on my list of things to make), but I wanted something different. That's when I got the idea to dip them in chocolate (the chocolate I didn't use for the espresso cups) and roll them in candy! They would be the perfect fall treat, and get you in the mood for Halloween!

 

I didn't use any recipe, just what I thought would taste good and work the way I wanted it to. Here's a list of what I used:

Chocolate Dipped Apples

Approx. 3 cups of chocolate (I used both white and milk chocolate)
8 apples (I used empire, but another tart apple - like granny smith - would work well too) and 8 kebab skewers
Sour patch kids, pretzels, Reese peanut butter cups, Oreos, or any candy/chocolate/cookie you like!
Extra chocolate for drizzling

Directions

1. Melt chocolate in a double-boiler set over medium-low heat.
2. Skewer apples through the top with kebab skewers (makes dipping easier) and dip one at a time into the melted chocolate. Allow to cool at room temperature (at least 5 minutes), or put it in the fridge till, the chocolate is more viscous, but not yet solid.
3. Roll the apple in toppings and drizzle with chocolate.
4. Cool apples in fridge till chocolate hardens.
5. Remove the skewers if desired.

Unfortunately for me, patience is not one of my virtues (at least when it comes to baking!) I want results, and I want them 10 minutes ago. That was a problem in this recipe. If you don't give your chocolate enough time to cool, when you roll the apples in the toppings, they'll just fall off. So to save yourself the headache of watching the toppings melt off your apple, try to wait!

I consulted a lot of people on the toppings I should use, and whenever I mentioned sour patch kids I got the same response "Uhm, are you sure?" It seemed like no one thought they'd turn out! However, I had a good hunch about them. When I visited a friend in Calgary this past summer, she had me try chocolate covered sour suckers for the first time and boy, let me tell you: these things were heaven! The contrast between sour and creamy chocolate was strange, but highly addictive. I figured the same concept would apply to my apples and guess what - it did! They are fabulous. You may not believe me, but you need to try it! It will probably change your life - they are this good.

I haven't had a chance to try the other kinds, but hopefully the recipients of those apples will let me know how they turn out and I can pass the results along! I can't see any of them turning out badly!