I’m kind of a sucker for a good caramel apple. You know the kind – caramel, chocolate, and lots of delicious caramel apple toppings. I even made a caramel apple nacho bar once. But dipping caramel apples is such a pain. I can’t ever get the caramel to stick properly, especially not once you add the chocolate layer on top. There’s definitely an art to making your own caramel apples. There’s a reason I bought them for the prizes for my most recent apple party. Anyway, this caramel apple bark takes the best of all the things you love about a caramel apple and makes them way easier to make and way easier to eat. It’s great for serving at a party or even just making a small batch when you want the taste of a caramel apple without all the hassle!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
4-ingredients – with just four simple ingredients, this is pretty much as easy as recipes come! Foolproof – when I say foolproof I mean foolproof. The recipe is just melting chocolate and pouring onto a pan, cutting apples, and melting some caramel. It doesn’t have to be pretty, doesn’t have to be perfect, just has to be done. Versatile – you can use pretty much any toppings you want for this bark so let people choose their own toppings and have a square of their own! Nuts on one side, pretzels on another, chopped up Snickers pieces. You get it.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Apples – I like to use tart green apples to balance out the sweetness of the chocolate and caramel, but you can really use any type of apples you want. Don’t dice them until you’re ready to put them into the caramel so they don’t brown. Caramel – this is best made with caramel bits because they melt so well. You could also use regular caramel squares but the caramel doesn’t melt and pour as well. You could also potentially replace the melted caramel with a caramel sauce. Just make sure it’s very thick and replace the caramel with 1 1/2 cups of the sauce. Chocolate chips – I like using milk chocolate chips but this would also be good with dark chocolate chips, butterscotch, or even white chocolate. Toppings – I’ve included pretzels in my image above but the topping options are really endless. Pretzels, nuts, broken up pieces of candy. So many options!
How to make caramel apple bark
Okay, are you ready to see how easy this yummy fall treat is to make? You’re going to be blown away how quickly this can be made and enjoyed! Start by lining a full size baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. I typically use cookie sheets like this one. Melt three cups of the chocolate chips either in the microwave or on the stove using a double boiler. If you’re going to use the microwave, place the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Stir then continue cooking on high power, stirring every 15 seconds, until the chocolate chips and melted and completely smooth. Pour the melted chocolate on prepared baking sheet and use a silicone spatula to spread it around to all the corners of the baking sheet. Immediately top the chocolate with your preferred toppings. Make sure whatever toppings you are using are cut, broken, or torn into small pieces so they will work when the bark is broken. After that’s done, melt your caramel bits either in the microwave, similar to how you melted the chocolate above, or on the stove using a double boiler. Melt and cook and the caramels get bubbly. While the caramel is cooking, dice your apples. Once the caramel is done, stir the diced apples into the melted caramel, making sure all of the apples are well incorporated. Adding them into the caramel will help keep them from browning. Once it’s well-mixed, pour the caramel apples over the pretzel layer and spread evenly. Place baking sheet into the refrigerator and allow the bark to cool for at least 30 minutes. Just before you hit the hour mark, melt the remaining chocolate either in the microwave using the same method as above. Remove the bark from the fridge and drizzle the extra melted chocolate on top of the bark. Place the caramel apple bark back in the refrigerator and let it chill for 2-3 hours until the caramel bark is totally set. Remove from the refrigerator, take the parchment off of the baking sheet, and slice into pieces. Don’t try to drop it on the table and let it just break naturally like regular bark, it doesn’t work that way because of the caramel. Enjoy your delicious caramel apple treat without all the hassle of dipping caramel apples! I love keeping this in the fridge and just grabbing a square when I want a quick treat!
Expert Tips
Store in the refrigerator until ready to be eaten. I typically like to remove from the fridge after a couple of hours of setting, cut, and put it back into an airtight container to keep in the fridge until I’m ready to serve. Enjoy the caramel apple bark the day it’s made for best taste. If you’d like to keep it for longer, store it in the refrigerator as mentioned above. Don’t try to freeze the caramel apple bark, it doesn’t freeze well. Try doing different toppings on each of the different fourths of the caramel apple bark. Mix it up with Mini M&Ms, pretzel pieces, almonds, and even Oreo pieces would be good!
More Easy Fall Treats
Pumpkin cupcakes – these decadent fall treats combine pumpkin with spice cake, all topped with a delicious cheesecake frosting! Fall snack mix – this fall colored snack mix combines sweet, salty, and autumn spices for a delicious sweet treat! Pumpkin cookies with cake mix – these four ingredient pumpkin cookies take just minutes to make and are the perfect fall dessert for anyone who likes pumpkin and chocolate!Pumpkin delight recipe – four layers of fall goodness combined in this heavenly pumpkin dessert!Pumpkin blondies – a cake like pumpkin bar meets chocolate chips in this decadent fall recipe!Caramel apple dump cake – a 5-ingredient cake that’s literally just dumping ingredients in a pan and baking!
