it was almost good

Snacks are a big deal at preschool. There are a very limited number of things kids are allowed to have for snacks since the school tries to be 'allergen free.'
On birthdays, kids are allowed to bring a special snack...but if you want it to be a cake you have to make the entire thing from scratch to make sure only approved ingredients are used.

For Elliott's birthday...I didn't want to make a cake from scratch and cart it 2 hours away since we were still living with my parents and driving a long way to school.

Instead, I found a fun idea on Pinterest and decided to try it...mini caramel apples. (the ones below are not mine...they're the ones I pinned.) I had to do mine differently so the caramel was wrapped all the way around. Process detailed below...

 

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I found a brand of caramels that were peanut-free and thought the bite sized apples would be much easier to handle than whole apples for a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds. :)

They were almost great! The only reason they fell a bit short of "the best snack ever" was the 2 hour drive. As the apples got warmer, the caramel started to slide off of them and became a little messy. I also waited too long to put in the pretzel sticks (I didn't want them to get soggy). By the time I tried to do it, the caramel had hardened and the pretzels just kept breaking. Bummer. But apparently the kids liked them anyway.

Here's the process in case you want to try making them sometime. They'd be cute rolled in white chocolate chips for a Christmas party too. Actually...I have another idea...wouldn't it be cute to do 3 apples (or other fruit) stacked like a snowman and covered in white chocolate? If anyone tries it please let me know.

The process:

1. I had to get caramel apple wrappers after trying a batch with melted caramels. I absolutely couldn't figure out how to get the melted caramel to stick...it just slid off every time. The wrappers were perfect. I cut each sheet into 5 pie shaped pieces.

2. Use a melon baller to cut the apples into bite-sized pieces. You end up wasting quite a bit of the apple...but you could probably cut it up and use it in another way.

3. Wrap the apple pieces.

I wanted to put the apples in something to make it easier for the kids to pick them up and eat them so I used parchment cups. I'm SO glad I did that because it was much easier for the kids.

 

Step 4 should have been to add the pretzels but since I had the drive I didn't want the pretzels to get soggy and I waited. If you do them...just add the pretzels as soon as you wrap them and you're done! Enjoy!