I didn’t grow up eating caramel apples and, as much as I hate to admit it, it wasn’t because my parents were health focused and refused to allow their kid to eat candy. Blaming this on my parents would have been easy as that would have given me a very logical alliby for never having tried a treat that most people I know grew up eating every fall. The truth of the matter is that nothing about a caramel apple has ever appealed to me.

Sure, they’re beautiful to look at and, don’t get me wrong, I love both apples and caramels. But the thought of biting into a crisp apple and hitting your teeth on a hard caramel coating seems unatural to me.

When I started this blog I decided to challenge myself by trying new recipes and cooking techniques that I have avoided in the past or thought a bit too unattainable. Enter, the caramel apple. Sure, I’d made caramel in the past, but I knew that there had to be something different about a caramel that could adhere to an apple without slipping off it in a puddle of goo. So, I set off to find the best recipe that I could get my hands on.

My first attempt was an utter disaster. A recipe that was developed and claimed to have been tested by a well known blogger, who’s name I shall not mention, was thin and watery and pooled down my apples like a pre-schooler going down a water slide. My first thought was that I must have somehow messed up the recipe but I knew that I followed it exactly. So then, what was wrong?

The answer, my friends lay in the list of ingredients. The recipe that I had used was missing one simple and necessary ingredient, corn syrup. I won’t bore you with the chemistry behind this, most of which I admit, I don’t completely understand. But, I will tell you that corn syrup is what causes caramel to become sticky enough to adhere to the apples. Unlike regular caramel which is used for drizzling on desserts, the caramel that is used to coat apples must be thicker and stickier in order to fully coat and attach to the apples. Voila!

Off I went again to try and find the perfect recipe which I found on Sally’s Baking Addiction. Thick, rich and deeply flavorful caramel that came together in a matter of minutes and stuck to my apples without creating a rain of melted sugar.

But, as always, I can’t leave well enough alone so, I chopped up some roasted, salted pistachios and dipped the apples in them immediately after applying a coat of caramel to the bottom half of the apple. Then a cup of dark chocolate chips, melted in 30 second spurts and drizzled over the exposed part of the apple proved to be the perfect finishing touch. Oh, yeah, I also used small branches (about 6 inches in length) that I pulled off my trees instead of a wooden sticks for a fun and rustic look.

Did this recipe change my mind about caramel apples? I’ll admit it, this treat is definitely delicious and not at all what I imagine apples wrapped in supermarket caramel sheets that I remember from my childhood must have tasted like. But, unfortunately, being a carb-o-holic, I still much prefer a doughy apple cake drizzled with caramel and topped off with a scoop of ice cream. Nonetheless, the buttery, salted caramel, wrapped around a crisp apple, topped with salted pistachios and dark chocolate drizzle is definitely what some might call a match made in heaven. Or, is it?

I hope that you’ll give this Caramel Apples With Pistachios and Dark Chocolate recipe a whirl. If you do, please let me know what you think or tag me on Instagram. I always love hearing from everyone and seeing pictures of anything that you make. And above all, thank you so much for stopping by.