My daughter had a housewarming party this past weekend and what better says fall foods than caramel apples.   But who wants to eat a caramel apple and make a mess.  So I searched the internet knowing I wanted to do apple chunks dipped into caramel.  Well I cam across a million sites that did little mini apples, and then I decided I wanted to make them dairy free for my son so commercially bought caramel were out!

Ding a light went on in my head so I took the mini apple idea and combined it with my recipe for peanut butter popcorn.   success!

First off to make the apple look like mini apples they say use a melon scooper, well I have never owned a melon scooper so I used a measuring spoon and did the best I could to get little round circles out of my apple.  It worked, not the best but it worked and I think it was the perfect size to insert a tooth pick rather than go buy lollipop sticks.  I am a little frugal!

Note:  Make all your apple bites first and dry them with a paper towel as the moisture will make the caramel slide right off.   and who cares if they brown a bit its going to be covered in gooey goodness.

for the Peanut Butter Caramel take 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup corn syrup, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 cup peanut butter or almond butter.  put into a pan and heat to boiling.

Dip your little apple bites in, working fairly fast because the caramel will start to set.   once dipped (this is best a two person job) sprinkle with the small colored balls (I used fall colors)  and place on parchment paper. It  looks like a mini caramel apple and its bite sized good.   and what pairs better with apples than peanut butter.

Okay now that we have that down, why don’t you take the left over peanut butter caramel and put it on some popcorn.   MMMMMMM this is how we normally eat it.  Peanuty buttery caramely popcorn!

Picture is not mine, it’s just to give you an idea of what it should look like since I don’t have a good photo of mine.