I'm probably opening myself up to some ridicule (or intense dislike) for saying this, but if I'm being honest I would have to say that while I really do like chocolate, I think I like caramel just a little bit more. Fall is one of my favorite seasons ever, for lots of different reasons, but apples dipped in caramel is definitely one of them!
I have had one caramel dip recipe for years that I really loved, but I wanted to try a couple other recipes to see if I was missing out. So the other day I got my original recipe, found two others that looked good but had completely different ingredients, and I made all three! I tasted all of them and was having a really hard time picking a "winner" - they are all soooo good! I took them to an extended family dinner where I had about 15 people cast their votes...and there still wasn't a clear winner, although two of the recipes beat out the other one.
The result of all of this research? Three fabulous caramel dips that are all quite different from each other, use very different ingredients, yet will all still satisfy those caramel cravings. The first two are super easy...as in takes less than 3 minutes to make easy. The last one took about 20 minutes to make, is a little more complicated, was delicious, but also came in last place amongst the famous family vote. I'm excited to have three different recipes for caramel now - at any given time the odds are pretty good that I will have all the ingredients for at least one of these options!
We dipped apples in all three, but I'm sure you could dip lots of other things too - bananas, graham crackers, pretzels, marshmallows...I doubt there is much that wouldn't taste good when dipped in caramel!
Recipe #1 (this is the one I grew up with - not sure where it came from!)
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Mix together in saucepan over medium heat until melted and smooth. I like this warm, but it also tastes yummy chilled! This recipe does not harden when cooled like most other caramel recipes-it still has a caramel taste, but a much softer texture.
Recipe #2 (got this one from a friend of a friend)
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
- 1 cup butterscotch chips
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. white vinegar
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
Mix together in saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until melted and heated through. Really yummy warm, but gets hard when cooled so if you store it in the refrigerator, you will have to reheat before serving.
This recipe has a very strong cinnamon flavor which I really loved (and so did everyone else!), but if you don't think you want it to taste quite so cinnamony, maybe start with half the given amount and see what you think.
Recipe #3 (found here, but I added some instructions because they were not very clear!)
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
In a large heavy saucepan, combine the white sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil and heat to between 234 and 240 degrees F (soft ball stage). At this point, stir in the butter and heavy cream carefully-the mixture will bubble up. (Use a large pan because this bubbles up quite a bit. I used a 3 1/2 quart saucepan and it wasn't quite big enough!) You need to keep stirring and boiling until the temperature goes back up to about 240 degrees F. This took about 10 minutes, so don't worry if the temperature isn't going back up...just keep stirring and it will get there, I promise!
Immediately remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Cool for a few minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
