Chocolate Caramel Pops

 

When I was little Halloween preparation started months in advance. My mom and I would discuss Halloween costumes, how we should carve the pumpkin and what should be in the Halloween loot bags. That's right, we used to give out loot bags! Our house was on a corner and we got around 100+ kids a year. Inevitably we would run out of the bags because word would travel quickly that we were the house to hit and my dad would go rummaging through the cupboards to find alternative things to give out. Unfortunately one year he decided a good substitute was boxed raisins... obviously we got egged.
I lovvvved stuffing the loot bags- normally they consisted of a clear cellophane bag with 4 or 5 different candies in them, tied closed with a cute ribbon. FUN RIGHT!? I loved it. Needless to say its been a while since I have made Halloween loot bags to give out, but this is a fun recipe to make for a Halloween party or just to get into the festive spirit!

You can change this up with whatever you have on hand- I went with crushed, salted pistachios and orange candies to be festive, as well as some sea salt to balance out the intense sweetness of the caramels.

The secret to making this work is putting the sticks into the caramels and then freeze them for half an hour. I thought that it would be totally fine to just start dipping after I had poked the stick into the caramel and this is what happened:

The caramels get soft and slowly start to sink off their sticks to their death. Losers. They totally missed out on caramel, chocolate amazing-ness. Lesson learned for the both of us.

Once your caramels are frozen onto the sticks start dipping into melted chocolate and then top with your favorite ingredients. You will want to stick these into something so they can set standing up straight, I filled a vase with rice and that worked well. A Styrofoam block would also work perfectly.

Chocolate Caramel Pops

Ingredients:
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- sea salt
- 1 tbsp chopped pistachios
- orange candies
- caramels
- lolly pop sticks (you can find these at craft or baking stores)
- a vase or bowl filled with rice to stick the drying pops in

Method:

1. Start by unwrapping your caramels... this is slightly more annoying than I expected... but TOTALLY worth it.
2. Push your sticks into the caramels and place them on a wax paper/ parchment paper lined plate and send them into the freezer for at least 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile... Start with one type of chocolate, and put the chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave the chocolate for 40 seconds, remove and stir, continue microwaving for another 15 seconds and stir. Continue to micro for 15 seconds and stir until the chocolate is melted. Repeat with the remaining type of chocolate.
4. Now you are ready to dip! Swirl the caramels into the chocolate and quickly top with sea salt, nuts or candies.
5. Place into your pops in a rice filled vase to set standing up. This will take about 30 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

xo
C