bellewood acres apple orchard & Caramel Apple Dipping Party

What does Fall mean to you? Crisp air, cool sun breaks, cider and jewel toned apples the size of a softball. To celebrate the season we recently visited Bellewood Acres Apple Orchard to grab some apples and have a family caramel apple dipping party.

The orchard is a beautiful place to enjoy some adult beverages and snacks while the kids play on the playground, eat apple cider donuts and listen to live music.

We enjoyed a charcuterie platter and gin cider slushies made with house pressed cider and gin from Bellewood’s own distillery. The kids love the {alcohol free version} cider slushies.

Whether you visit Bellewood for their u pick apples, orchard tour, distillery tasting tours or just to hang out at the cafe and market I’m sure you and your family will have a great time.

We later turned their beautiful and delicious honeycrisp apples into festive caramel apples. It’s so fun and super easy.

Start by putting out a large tray of different toppings. Assorted candies, chopped cookies, mini marshmallows, toasted coconut, chocolate chips, chopped nuts, sprinkles, melted chocolate, cinnamon sugar, etc.

Insert sticks into the stem end of the apples.

Dunk each apple in boiling water for a few seconds then wipe dry. This removes the waxy coating on apples and helps the caramel to stick. Be careful to not submerge in water for more than a few seconds or you will cook your apple, changing the texture.

After all the apples have been dipped and dried, set out a large parchment or wax paper lined tray and give each guest their own apple on a plate.

Unwrap caramels and add to a saucepan over medium heat with a few tablespoons of water.

Dip each apple completely in, tilt upright and swirl. Make sure caramel covers the entire apple all the way to the stick. This helps to prevent the caramel from sliding off finished apples.

Immediately start giving dipped apples to guests. The caramel will start to cool and harden right away, so you want to move fast to ensure the toppings stick.

It was 10 minutes of madness but so fun to see all the different delicious concoctions everyone came up with.

Wrapped caramel was easy, but next time I may make my own . I may also try roughing up the apples with sandpaper instead of boiling. We ate most of the caramel apples right away but the ones that were left for a day lost most of their caramel.