You can buy caramel apples year round these days but what fun to make yourself and how delicious they are this time of year when such a wide variety of apples are so plentiful.
When you make them keep in mind caramel has a low amount of water and apples are acidic so neither are normally breeding grounds for Listeria but piercing an apple with a dipping stick causes a bit of apple juice to leak out and become trapped under a layer of caramel. This creates an environment that aids the growth of Listeria already present on the apple’s surface.
Listeria growth occurs more quickly when a caramel apple is stored at room temperature compared to refrigeration. Caramel apples should stay fresh up to one week if refrigerated.
Why does my caramel get runny in the fridge? it’s sort of “melting” in the fridge.
Carolan, thank you for your query. By ‘melting’, I am going to assume you mean the caramel is slowly sliding off the apple and pooling at the base of the apple. (If otherwise, please write again and correct me.) If my assumption is correct, I suspect that the melting is due to the wax residue on the apple. While the shiny wax makes the apples pretty, it also makes it hard for caramel to cling to the apple. Here are some suggestions to ‘fix’ this problem. 1) Scrub the apples rigorously but carefully with a nylon scrubber under warm water. 2) Use a fine sandpaper to remove the wax followed by a good washing under warm water. Make sure you don’t break the skin with the sandpaper. 3) Soak the apples in hot water for 10-15 minutes. 4) Dip apples into boiling water for 1 minute. If either of the last two methods are used, you will need to refrigerate the apple for about 30 minutes before dipping.