So I just spur of the moment decided I would blog while trying to complete this task. I have washed my apples and they are drying now I will move them to the fridge next because from what I have read this helps to make the caramel harden quicker and will prevent a big puddle at the bottom of each apple.
While the apples are drying I am attempting to use the food processor that was given to me from my mom-in-law as a gift two or three Christmas' ago. I have only used this thing twice and both times ruined what I was trying to do lol I once was trying to mince fresh garlic and ended up with garlic sauce very quickly the second time was with nuts, I thought I would save myself money and buy whole nuts and chop them myself as it is half the price that way I had powder when I was done. So I hope today is different I talked to my mom-in-law for some guidance and so far I've done alright.
I forgot I have a block of white chocolate in the pantry and I think I will melt some when these are done so I can make these look a bit fancy :) The instructions say pull out the stem like it is easy lol maybe I'm a little more wimpy than I tell myself I am. One down 20ish to go. I hope shoving the Popsicle stick down the middle really is as easy as it sounds. OK the rest were pretty easy with the exception of one or two that broke off half way down the first one was just hard I guess lol thank goodness because all the women who reviewed the recipe I found sounded like it was so simple (it is) I was worried lol. They all have sticks and are in the fridge now. I will get started on finding out about this caramel business now. Well before the caramel I guess I better get my pan ready for after I finish dipping. The instructions say to butter the pan I guess this makes it easy to pick them up once they cool. I don't really know but I'm not going to find out why not to do it so here we go foil and butter. I'm using the butter stick like it is a glue stick and it is working super easily. 
NOW on to the good part the caramel. I can't wait to finish these but I wish I would have picked up a cute fall ribbon I got the cutest bags with pumpkins and fall leaves on them to individually wrap them.
Alright at this point I have 12 apples done, I just slid the pan into the fridge to help them cool and set and since I am learning as I go the trick is to wipe all the caramel off of the bottom then only cover the sides and not the bottom with your topping because the caramel all slides down and you end up with a giant puddle of caramel topping lol they are really looking good and now I need a little more nuts and caramel and another pan with butter so I'm moving right along to the next batch.
OK now that they are all done I took the first batch out of the fridge and made a bowl of white chocolate it was a definite FAIL to say the least lol. Looks like we will be taste testing two apples tonight to make sure they are safe! I forgot how thick this stuff was. I first stirred it and realized it was not going to be able to be drizzled like I originally planned so I decided to use a Ziploc bag as a pastry bag and I shoveled a few huge spoon fulls into the bag and it was so hot I could hardly hold the bag so I had to then grab a towel to hold the bag, I cut a hole in one tip and it was too big so I decided to cut another hole in the other side that was smaller this was also a bad idea because now i had white stuff oozing out of both sides too fast I squirted it back into the bowl and even though the package said don't add anything to make it thinner I thought I would try it anyway because it was already not working for me. I added a little water and it instantly turned a caramel color and looked more like oily water than white chocolate. I probably would have had better luck with real chocolate because I was trying to use stuff called almond bark which tastes like chocolate but it is actually not (I think but I don't know to be honest lol)
Anyway the twenty that did not get chocolate squirted on them actually look very nice and I am pleased. The only thing I am disappointed about is that I have a half a bowl of caramel and nothing to put it on lol I will give some to the boys but then I am not real sure what I am going to do with the rest. The total cost for this treat was around 32.00 for 22 apples or under 1.50 per apple. That includes the sticks and the bags I will use to seal them up. I'm sure you could do these for even cheaper if you had coupons or price shopped but I didn't do that. However since I didn't want to eat the whole cost of this treat during one weeks groceries I did buy all the parts separately. I got the caramels, then the pecans then the apples and in between I searched for the bags I liked the best. Most of my cost came from the pecans so if you pick cheaper nuts or don't use nuts at all then you could cut the cost in half I needed two bags of pecans at a cost of 6.00+ per bag.
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