Apple Nachos with Homemade Caramel Sauce

Enjoy tart apple slices covered in homemade caramel sauce, cinnamon, lemon juice, chocolate chips, and nuts. This is perfect for a fun snack or even dessert!

Apples!

Apple are great: they are portable, always in season, not very expensive, and available pretty much everywhere.

This week, I am dedicating my posts to apples.

Today's recipe is a fun snack idea.

Yes, apples are great snacks, but having a regular old apple everyday can get a little boring.

So we're making apple nachos. Way more exciting!

I'd even go as far as saying you could make this for dessert...

This recipe is based off this one from Taste of Home, but I left out the marshmallow-butter sauce. I just didn't think it really needed it.

Homemade caramel sauce is perfect for holding your nachos together. Plus, skipping the marshmallow-butter sauce saves on some unwanted calories, fat, and sugar.

You can really put whatever you want on your apple nachos, but I like caramel sauce, chocolate chips, and nuts.

I made them with and without cinnamon, and I really like the cinnamon ones.

Both are delicious, but sprinkling cinnamon over the apples before putting on the caramel sauce, nuts, & chocolate chips helps keep the brown color away - or you just can't see the brown color 😉

Since most commercial caramel sauce has high fructose corn syrup and/or preservatives, I made my own for the nachos based off this recipe from Eating Well.

Mid-way through my experimenting with the recipe, I realized that my evaporated milk expired in January of 2011. Uh, gross. I will spare you the gory details/pictures. It was just weird and disturbingly nasty.

And then I realized that the only milk/cream thing I had in my refrigerator was unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Well, this ended up working quite nicely, but it took a lot longer to make the caramel sauce. A lot longer

Totally, worth the effort... having leftover caramel sauce in my refrigerator is not a bad deal. Caramel sauce in my lattes, over some ice cream, with a spoon... all very good things.

But try not to go overboard with the caramel sauce because while it's better for you than store-bought caramel sauce is, it certainly isn't healthy...

Jars of homemade caramel sauce would be a great homemade Christmas gift, too!

Apple Nachos with Homemade Caramel Sauce

Enjoy tart apple slices covered in homemade caramel sauce, cinnamon, lemon juice, chocolate chips, and nuts. This is perfect for a fun snack or dessert!

Print Rate

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 0 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Servings: 2

Author: Meme

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 tart apple {I used Granny Smith}
• ▢ 1/2 lemon
• ▢ 1/4 tsp cinnamon optional
• ▢ 2 TBSP homemade caramel sauce {see below}
• ▢ 2 TBSP semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ▢ 2 TBSP chopped nuts

Instructions

• Core and thinly slice the apple.
• Place apple slices on two small plates {or on a large plate}. Squeeze half of a lemon over the apple slices. Sprinkle evenly with cinnamon, if using.
• Drizzle 1 TBSP caramel sauce over apples on each plate. Sprinkle each with 1 TBSP chocolate chips and 1 TBSP nuts. {Or put all the apples on one plate and drizzle with caramel sauce then sprinkle with all the chocolate chips & nuts}
• Serve as soon as possible.

Did you try this recipe?Be sure to leave a comment & recipe rating below. Bonus points for tagging @memeinge & #livingwellkitchen on Instagram! THANK YOU! xo

Homemade Caramel Sauce

Homemade caramel sauce that can be vegan

Print Rate

Prep Time: 1 minute

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Total Time: 56 minutes

Servings: 16

Author: Meme

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cup sugar
• ▢ 1/2 cup water
• ▢ 1.5 TBSP butter use dairy free butter for vegan
• ▢ 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk {or use evaporated milk}
• ▢ 1/2 tsp molasses or maple syrup
• ▢ 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

• Stir together sugar and water in a saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat and bring to a low boil, stirring occasionally.
• Once it boils, do not stir anymore. Boil for about 15 to 20 minutes, until it becomes an amber color {keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn}. Remove from heat. Let cool 2 minutes, then carefully stir in butter. Once it is completely incorporated, slowly stir in the almond milk until it is completely incorporated.
• Return to heat, and simmer over medium/medium-low while stirring very often. It will be pretty runny right now. Simmer until it thickens and becomes like caramel sauce {Mine took about 20-30 minutes. Just be patient}.
• Remove from heat and stir in molasses and vanilla extract. Let cool about 5-10 minutes until it thickens, and serve.
• Refrigerate any unused sauce.

Notes

*Makes 1 cups of caramel sauce.

*Keep the caramel sauce in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Did you try this recipe?Be sure to leave a comment & recipe rating below. Bonus points for tagging @memeinge & #livingwellkitchen on Instagram! THANK YOU! xo

Be sure to check back the rest of the week to see what other apple recipes I post {Chicken & Apple Curry, Apple Salad, Apple Walnut Brie & Arugula Pizza, Baked Apples}

Meme