How to Make Gourmet Chocolate Covered Apples

The other day, I got the BEST e-mail from a friend! She wanted to know how to make chocolate-covered apples. YES! Are you as excited as I was? Let me say that again, chocolate-covered apples. If you’ve enjoyed a chocolate-covered apple before, I bet you know two things: 1. They are delicious. 2. They cost a fortune! Seriously, I’ve seen some of these treats going for $15.00 per apple. The good news? They are easy to make at home!
Here’s how to do it:

Get some candy apple sticks from a cake shop (or craft store). You want the ones that are sharpened on one end. Twist the stick firmly into the apple. The stick becomes your dipping tool. So you don’t want it to be loose.

I used honeycrisp apples because I love honeycrisp apples but any crisp apple will do.

Find a small bowl or measuring cup and stick the apple into the cup. Why you ask? You want to make sure the apple fits in the bowl. Who wants to melt chocolate only to find out that your apple doesn’t fit into the bowl. See how there isn’t much room around my apple? That’s great. If the bowl was too big, I’d need lots of melted chocolate to fill the bowl for dipping. With a smaller bowl, I don’t need to melt as much chocolate.

Slowly dip your apple into the melted chocolate. Here I’m using milk chocolate but white or dark chocolate work just as well.

Oh my…

Twist the apple to cover it completely.

Slowly pull the apple out of the chocolate. (YUM, right?)

Allow the excess chocolate to dip off the apple. You can give it a gentle shake to help this process. (This is important because the excess chocolate pools around the apple while it cools. And if you want to do a second coat, which, trust me, you do, the pooled chocolate becomes a pain to deal with.)

Allow the chocolate-dipped apples to set up on a piece of parchment paper. (See the little pool of chocolate around the base of the apple? Imagine how much would be there if I didn’t allow the excess chocolate to drip off.)

Now you could stop there. Of course you could! But why would you want to?

I wanted to coat my dipped apple in marshmallows. Whenever you add “goodies” (M&Ms, marshmallows, chopped nuts, crushed cookies) to a chocolate apple, you need to first apply a base coat of chocolate. If you don’t the weight of the “goodies” will drag the first coat of warm, melted chocolate off the apple.

Be sure your first coat of chocolate has set before re-dipping the apple.

After dipping the apple again,  I slowly rolled the coated apple in marshmallows. There were a few bare spots. So I hand-placed some marshmallows. This goes quick.

If you don’t want the outside of any of the marshmallows to be coated in chocolate, you can always hand-place all of the marshmallows. It’s up to you. I like this kind of homemade look but if you want white marshmallows on a dark apple, I understand.

I wasn’t done. Oh yes! Time for more chocolate!

I decided that I only wanted a ring around the bottom coated with M&Ms. Therefore, I only dipped about 1/3 of the apple in chocolate.

Since M&Ms are heavy, rolling the apple in the plate of M&Ms produced a so-so result, many of the candy pieces fell off. Pressing each M&M onto the apple, one at a time, worked much better. And, surprisingly, went pretty quickly.

Now, you could dip the entire apple in chocolate and place M&Ms all over the apple. That wouldn’t be bad. At all. At all. 

But what if you don’t want candy (or cookies or nuts) on the outside of your apples? How about doing a triple dip?

First I coated the apple in melted white chocolate and allowed the chocolate to firm before dipping it into melted milk chocolate. (This is key. Whenever you are dipping multiple kinds of chocolate, always start with the lighter chocolate first. So you’d want to dip white—>milk—>dark. Or milk—>dark or white—>dark. You get the idea.)

Next up? Dark chocolate!

After the milk layer set, in went the apple.

Done!

Print

Gourmet Chocolate Covered Apples

Making homemade chocolate-covered apples isn't only delicious, it's budget-friendly!

Prep Time 20 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Servings 6

Author GlutenFreeBaking.com

Ingredients

For Chocolate-coated Apples with Candy

• 6 large apples, washed and dried (Water causes chocolate to seize. Be sure to dry the apples completely.)
• 6 candy sticks
• 1 pound milk, dark and/or white confectionery coating
• about 2 cups small candies or chopped nuts

For Triple Chocolate Dipped Apples

• 6 large apples, washed and dried (Water causes chocolate to seize. Be sure to dry the apples completely.)
• 8 ounces block caramel or 6 sheets caramel wraps, optional
• 6 candy sticks
• 8 ounces white confectionery coating
• 8 ounces milk confectionery coating
• 8 ounces dark confectionery coating

Instructions

1. For the Candy-coated Apples: Pierce apples with sticks. Be sure the sticks don't wiggle. You need to hold onto the stick while you dip your apple and you don't want the stick to slip out of the apple.
2. Find a small bowl or 2-cup measure. "Test" each apple by placing it into the bowl. Do they all fit? Is there room around the apple? If yes, you have found your bowl! If not, find another bowl.
3. In your selected bowl, place half pound chocolate. (or more depending on the size of your bowl. The chocolate should fill the bowl half way.) Microwave your chocolate for 30 seconds. Remove the bowl from the microwave. Stir. The chocolate won't be melted at this point. That's fine. You are removing "hot spots." This prevents the chocolate from burning. Return the chocolate to the microwave and repeat, stirring every 30 seconds, until chocolate is melted. (Note: If your apple bowl isn't microwave-safe, melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and transfer the melted chocolate to the bowl. If you don't have a microwave, place the chocolate in the top of a double boiler. Heat over medium heat (there should be water in the bottom of your double boiler.). Stir until chocolate melts. Transfer melted chocolate to the bowl you'll be dipping the apples in.)
4. Dip each apple, one at a time, into the melted chocolate. Rotate the apple in the chocolate to coat completely. Slowly pull the apple out of the chocolate, shaking off excess chocolate.
5. Place dipped chocolate on a piece of parchment paper.
6. Spread selected toppings on a plate(s). Dip apple again in the chocolate. Either roll or place the toppings onto the apple. Covering as much or as little of the apple as you want.
7. Return the dipped, coated apple to the parchment paper.
8. For the Triple Chocolate Apples: Pierce each apple with a candy apple stick. Be sure the stick is tightly inserted into the apple.
9. Roll out caramel, if using a block. Wrap caramel around apple.
10. Place half pound chocolate. (or more depending on the size of your bowl. The chocolate should fill the bowl halfway.) Microwave your chocolate for 30 seconds. Remove the bowl from the microwave. Stir. The chocolate won't be melted at this point. That's fine. You are removing "hot spots." This prevents the chocolate from burning. Return the chocolate to the microwave and repeat, stirring every 30 seconds, until chocolate is melted. (Note: If your apple bowl isn't microwave-safe, melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and transfer the melted chocolate to the bowl. If you don't have a microwave, place the chocolate in the top of a double boiler. Heat over medium heat (there should be water in the bottom of your double boiler.). Stir until chocolate melts. Transfer melted chocolate to the bowl you'll be dipping the apples in.)
11. Dip apple. Rotate apple in chocolate to coat completely. Slowly pull apple out of the chocolate. Shake to remove excess chocolate. Place dipped apple on a piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle with salt. Allow to set.