Makes 6 Apples
This recipe originally appeared in my column “Nickle & Dined” for Bust Magazine. Check out Bust for more delicious and affordable recipes!
Do you love to spread creamy peanut butter on crisp, sweet apples? This recipe takes that heaven and times it by 10. And just in time for Halloween!
Caramel making is an art, one you might not have time to perfect in between doling out candy to the neighborhood ghouls and crafting up your perfect slutty angel costume. This recipe dumbs it down with a secret ingredient: brown rice syrup. Now, it may not be the cheapest ingredient out there – it costs around 6 dollars for a jar – but it pretty much guarantees your caramel will turn out perfect. It also saves you some money at the dentist! The natural sugars in brown rice syrup will be much easier on your pearly whites.
Salty roasted peanuts top off the apple, making all your ooey gooey salty and sweet dreams come true. These little caramel apples are so fun and easy you can definitely get kids involved in the process! But don’t get your cats involved, trust me, it will be a disaster.
6 Granny Smith or Macintosh apples
1/2 cup well-stirred smooth natural peanut butter, at room temperature (I recommend Arrowhead Mills)
1/2 cup brown rice syrup, at room temperature
1 cup salted roasted peanuts, chopped well
6 bamboo skewers
Wax paper
Stick skewers through the bottoms of the apples. Make sure apples are secure. Set aside.
Spread a piece of parchment paper over a cutting board. Make room in your fridge for the cutting board, because you’ll be chilling the whole shebang.
Stir peanut butter and brown rice syrup together in a small sauce pan. Gently heat over low heat, stirring constantly with a fork, just until smooth and heated through. It should fall from your fork in ribbons. If it seems stiff, turn the heat off immediately and add a little extra brown rice syrup, until it’s fluid again. This happens because different peanut butters have varying amounts of moisture.
Use a spoon to spread peanut butter caramel over the entire apple. Sprinkle with peanuts, pressing peanuts into the caramel to make them stick. It’s ok if a few fall off. Place apple upside down on the wax paper and continue with the rest of the apples.
Transfer the cutting board with the apples to the fridge. Let set for at least 3 hours. Now apples are ready to eat!
wow , look tasty, recipe seems easy to make..gonna try it later , thank you 🙂
Okay, I scrubbed & dried my apples. Followed the recipe to the “T” (only doubled) the first time because I wanted to try do 10 apples. I followed the directions, and ended up adding more brown rice syrup (about 1/2 c more) because it was still SO thick. It really never did thin down, even with heating (and I did not overheat, just heated it through stirring constantly). I had a hard time spreading it onto apples & getting it to stay on, also, a double batch only coated 7 apples. So, I had only a little brown rice syrup left over and 3 more apples to coat. I took a previous commenter’s (THANK YOU) advice and heated the brown rice syrup first and then added a “dollop” of peanut butter, not wanting to get it to thick again. I tasted it and it was good, so I decided to fly with it. It coated so much better, it was the consistency I expected and was easy to work with- no trouble coming off the apples at all. I put each apple immediately into the fridge to chill and the coating did not come off at all. I am absolutely convinced the heating method is the issue. Every recipe I’ve ever used before that calls for heating ingredients and adding PB, the other ingredients are melted/heated first and then the PB is stirred in at the last minute and I think there’s a good reason for that. That said, thank you for a great recipe- the flavor is wonderful! After a couple more times of making it, I’m sure I’ll get the prep down pat.
Those look amazing!
This is one of my favorite recipes of all time! I’ve shared the recipe sooo many times. Easy and delish! Thanks.
Maybe the problem of mixture not sticking to the apples has to do with the pb not being mixed enough in the jar. Be sure to really stir to get the oil and peanuts mixed together then start making this recipie.
I made these with Trader Joe’s Organic Creamy Unsalted Peanut Butter, with waxed apples, and substituted agave for the brown rice syrup (did .25 cup + 1 tbsp agave) and the apples turned out great!
I was worried when my sauce didn’t fall in “ribbons,” but after adding an extra tbsp of agave to my mixture, I decided to go for it. The process of putting the caramel onto the apple with a spoon wasn’t super easy, but it still worked and I was happy with the end result. I had apples that were quite small, and it the recipe made just enough for 6 of them.
Your dish looks very yummy!