Chocolate Turtle Caramel Apples

Push popsicle sticks into stem end of apple and set aside.

Place the chocolate chips and peanuts into a large shallow bowl (about 8 or 9 cup capacity), and set aside.

Place a large sheet of wax paper onto a large baking sheet, this is where the dipped apples will rest and cool.

Now, place the unwrapped caramel candies into deep bowl (one with a 3-cup capacity works perfectly). Add the water and microwave on high for one minute. Check if the caramels are melted and stir well if they are. If not, microwave for another 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Remove and stir well for about 2 minutes, until mixture is creamy and all lumps are melted. (Be careful, the bowl may be hot to the touch on the outside).

Dip one apple into the melted caramel, swirling to coat as much as desired. Lift out of caramel, let drip briefly and then press gently into the chocolate chip/peanut mixture, pressing only once per side so that the crunchies can embed in the caramel, but not swirling so that the mixture pulls the caramel off the sides.

Place the finished apple on the wax paper and repeat the dipping process with all remaining apples, using as much of the caramel as possible. (If you have any of the crunchy topping left over, it can be used on top of yogurt, with other apples and peanut butter, or even tossed into a batch of cookies.)

Now you can let your apples cool at room temperature, place them in the refrigerator for an hour or dig in and try one out immediately.

In about an hour, wrap each apple in a piece of plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for up to a week, if they last that long!

cook's notes

While standard recipes for making caramel apples say to use 5 apples, we used small apples and wanted to use up all the remaining melted caramel, so we were fortunate to be able to make 7 in our batch.

Depending upon how heavily you coat the apples (and their size), your results may vary.