Extra Apples? Try This DIY Caramel & Chocolate Apple Bar

If your fall started out anything like ours, it probably included picking apples at a nearby fruit farm. And if you’re anything like our family of three, 20 pounds of apples may be a lot to get through, especially if you’re a challenged baker like me, meaning apple pie is out of the question.

I was looking for a fun way to use up our surplus of apples and thought a caramel and chocolate apple bar would be fun and delicious for the whole family. It’s super easy to set up, and totally healthy (just kidding, it’s absolutely not healthy when you pick the toppings that I did!) We did this for dessert a few times, and included a couple of (adult) friends in one instance. It was a total hit for all ages!

First, decide your dippers, which is what you’ll use to make the toppings stick. I went with both caramel and chocolate because, well, why not? I bought some melting chocolate and heated it up, and bought a tub of caramel dip that is usually by the apples at the grocery store (heated up as well.) As for toppings, there are so many options but I went with the following:

• almonds
• peanuts
• coconut
• crumbled Heath bars
• mini M&Ms
• crumbled Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
• crumbled apple pie
• s’mores (crumbled graham crackers and mini marshmallows)

In order to keep things safe and sanitary, I gave each person an individual bowl of whatever dipper(s) they wanted. Generally this is both sauces, unless you’re my three-year-old son who only cares about chocolate.

I filled muffin liners with toppings; again separated into individual servings so each person can just take a liner of what they want, and there’s no communal bowls of toppings/serving spoons. I made stacks of each topping, and gave each person their own muffin tin to collect them in.

And of course, you need apples, which I sliced up and gave everyone individual servings. If you have a 12-muffin tin, you can fit apples, dippers, and toppings all in there! With a 6-muffin tin, you may need a separate bowl for apples depending on how many toppings are being used.

So there you have it; an easy and fun way to use up some of those apples! And it can feed a crowd, although you may need to borrow some muffin tins like I did, or come up with another way to serve them.

Make sure you have lots of napkins handy for adults and kids alike… it’s almost impossible not to make a mess, but it’s totally worth it!

Check out additional apple recipes, here!