I finally tried my hand at making Mickey Mouse candy apples. This has been something I've wanted to try making since I had my Minnie Mouse candy apple on our last trip. It was gooey, chocolaty, and so ridiculously good!! I thought it would be a nice treat for the family to have them at home and this is how they came out.
Not great, but not bad for a first attempt. It's hard to get them looking as smooth as they are in the parks, but they are better equipped for that than I am. I'll let you know how I made them and what improvements I think are needed for the next round. So that way you can give it a try if you want. If you do make them, please feel free to send pictures and I will put them up on the blog.
Time to make the Mickey Mouse candy apples!
Ingredients
4 Granny Smith apples
4 lollipop sticks
1 1/4 lbs caramel
3 tablespoons of milk
8 marshmallows
23 oz chocolate chips
12 oz melting chocolate (color of your choice)
6 oz red sugar (if using for all 4 apples)
8 yellow Skittles
4 oz crushed pretzels (if using for all 4 apples)
Directions
First remove as much of the stem as you can. Then wash your apples and dry them completely. Once all the apples are dry, stick a lollipop stick in each one. It can be hard to drive the sticks in, so you can use a can from the cupboard to help (I used a can of tuna and it worked pretty well).
Once you have the sticks in the apples you can begin melting the caramel. I used a double boiler, but you can always melt it in the microwave if you prefer. In order to try to keep the stickiness to a minimum I added 3 tablespoons of milk to help with the creaminess of the caramel coating. If you are using a double boiler, I would recommend medium heat to start. Once it is smooth and creamy, you can remove it from the heat.
Unwrapping all the caramel.
Starting the double boiler.
All melted and time for dipping!
Once you have removed the caramel from the heat you can start dipping your apples. The deeper the bowl you have for this the better. Again, at the parks they are better equipped for all the dipping that needs to happen with these apples. It will be very sticky...very sticky. Let the apple drip for a few seconds so that you don't have too much caramel on there. Once the extra caramel has dripped off, place the apple on a baking sheet. I had lined my baking sheet with wax paper, but the apples were too sticky, even after refrigeration, so I would just place them directly on the baking sheet.
Make sure to remove the caramel from the heat. I make the mistake of leaving it on the burner and I think that's why they look a little bubbly. The caramel still tastes good though! Once you have placed all the apples on the baking sheet, you can cover them with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight.
After they have hardened over night, you can start preparing the marshmallow ears. In order to get the marshmallows to stick on the apples you need to cut a strip off, exposing the stickiness so they will stay on the apples. Then you can place 2 marshmallows on each apple.
We have ears!
After you have placed the ears on the apples you can start melting the chocolate. Again, I used a double boiler for this, but you can use the microwave if you prefer. I used medium heat for this as well. Once the chocolate has melted you can remove it from the heat.
Now that the chocolate has melted you can start dipping the apples. I would recommend using a deep or very wide bowl for this, as well. If your bowl is too shallow it can be hard to get the marshmallows and the top of the apple covered evenly. Let the excess chocolate drip off and keep stirring, so the chocolate doesn't harden. I used a butter knife to try and smooth some areas of the apples, but if your bowl is deep enough (or wide enough) you should be able to cover the whole apple in one shot. Once all the apples are covered in chocolate place them in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, so they form a nice hard chocolate shell.
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Now it's time to decorate Mickey! You can do whatever you want here. I used some red melting chocolate that I had to dip 2 of the Mickeys. I microwaved the chocolate for 2 minutes and stirred it until it was smooth. Then I dipped the apples part of the way in (again, a deep bowl is good for this) and then dipped it in the red sugar before the melting chocolate had too much time to dry. I also stuck 2 yellow Skittles on for his buttons, but you can use any yellow candy for this. For the other 2 apples, I used green melting chocolate (Christmas on the mind?), dipped them halfway in the chocolate, and then dipped each apple in a bowl of crushed pretzels.
When you are done decorating, let the apples set for a few minutes. Once they have set, they are ready to eat. Enjoy!
Improvements For Next Time
Each time I make something new I know there are going to be things that work well and things that I need to fix for next time. This time around I realized I definitely need to remember to take the caramel and chocolate off the burner. Even if the burner is turned off, it is still too hot and will make the caramel bubble and will make the chocolate very hard to spread the longer it is on there. I don't make candy often, so it's always a learning process when I do. So, definitely make sure to remove the caramel and chocolate from the burner once it has melted.
Next time I am going to look for smaller apples. I think smaller ones would look a little better with the size of the marshmallows I used. Also, make sure to used a tart apple. Granny Smiths are good ones to use with caramel and chocolate.
Oh and no wax paper. The apples are too sticky and you'll end up using kitchen scissors to cut off the caramel from the bottom of the apples, because the wax paper will stick. Just use a baking sheet. Next time I might try a different kind of caramel too. I'll let you know if I do the recipe with different caramel next time.
We haven't tried them yet, probably after dinner tonight. Once we taste test them I will post an update.
If you're looking for a fun Fall recipe, Mickey apples are pretty fun to make and decorate!
Thanks for reading!
Liz ⁰O⁰
*** Update: I cut up one of the red Mickey apples and the family shared it for dessert. I asked for honest opinions and everyone said the apples were really good :-) Very happy with the results, but I will be giving it another try to see if I can get the chocolate to look smooth. I used Mutsu apples instead of Granny Smith (the Mutsus were the biggest apples there) and it still tasted good. I will probably use the Granny Smiths next time, just to compare, because (as I said above) the tartness of the Granny Smith will taste good with the caramel and chocolate. I can definitely call this a "win" and that makes me happy! :-) ***
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