When Recipes Attack: Potluck Carmel Apples

 

Everyone who cooks knows that sometimes things go wrong in the kitchen.  Sometimes, we can figure out why.  "Oh yeah, I did leave out the salt."  Sometimes, the recipe we follow is at fault (I find mistakes in lots of online recipes).  Sometimes we don't know what happened.  I always try to salvage cooking mistakes, especially ones with expensive ingredients or ingredients I don't use a lot, but sometimes you can't.

Today was a day when I'm not sure what happened, but I managed to salvage it.  I wanted to make caramel apples for a potluck tomorrow.  I've made caramel apples before, but I saw a recipe on a blog that used maple syrup and sounded delicious.  Since I've made them before, I decided to try it and I didn't plan a back up recipe.  Big mistake!   Using a new recipe for a potluck is a bad idea.

Anyway, I followed the instructions and yum, it looked delicious, but I did kind of thing it used a lot of butter.  I didn't think it would ever come together, but it eventually did.

However, even after cooling for hours, this is what my apples looked like.

 

Nothing I would ever bring to a potluck.  Yuck!  It just never got thick enough.  I even put it in the fridge and it was still sloshy.  I sliced this one and ate it.  The caramel tasted divine.  I didn't want to throw it away (plus, I don't normally keep sugar or flour around, so I didn't have anything else to make without going to to the store). 

It was like this was destined to happen.  My mom just bought me a crockpot with three bowls (for dips) last month.  I hadn't even opened it yet.  Since the caramel was a great dip, I decided to crack that baby open and put caramel in two bowls and some warm water with a squirt bottle to drizzle chocolate in the other. I filled one of my fall bowls with peanuts and I was set.

The real problem with this idea is that the apples need to be sliced and sliced apples turn brown.  I think everyone knows the trick to squirt lemon juice (yucky flavor) or lime juice (better flavor) on them to prevent them from turning.  I use citric acid.  I can and make cheese, so I always have a little citric acid on hand.  It's a powder.  If you dissolved a teaspoon in a cup of water, you can just soak the apples that liquid for a minute or two and they won't brown for a few days, give or take.  In my experience, it works better than lemon or lime juice (the citric acid is what makes those citric fruits work too).  I think because I literally dunk the entire slice in it and I never really have enough lime juice to do that. Plus, I can't taste the citric acid on the apples at all.  If you lick the actual powder, it tastes like a lemon.  The use it sour candy for the sour flavor.