Caramel Apples

A local Halloween tradition is that of the Caramel Apple.  Someone at my wife's office brought some in to share, and my wife grabbed an extra.

"If you don't like it," she told me, "I'm sure you'll know someone who will."

So I did what I've been doing whenever I'm presented with something that is part my my upbringing: I brought it in to work for Dasha.

"What is this?" She held the apple up in its plastic shell, turning it left and right, examining it closely.

"It's a caramel apple.  It's just an apple that's been dipped in caramel."

It bears mentioning that this was a grocery store apple. It wasn't really dipped - someone had wrapped a thin sheet of caramel around the apple and then dipped it in nuts.  The caramel hadn't even been softened first, so it did look a bit sketchy.  Because the best caramel apples are dipped in softened caramel. Or else the caramel sheets are softened after they are applied, which causes the caramel to harden.  It's a bit harder to eat, but tastes much better.

"How do you eat it?"

"It's on a stick.  You just hold it by the stick and eat the apple."

"I'm not hungry right now.  I will take it home and share with my husband."

The next morning, we asked her what she though.

"I liked the apple."  She put an odd emphasis on that last word.

"So you didn't like the caramel?"

"I don't know - it just didn't taste like real caramel."

I'll grant that. It just means I need to track down a good caramel apple for her at some point.

The verdict: Fail, but that may be the caramel on this particular sample.