There are many things I love about Fall, but I particularly love caramel apples. Growing up, I remember wrapping caramel around apples and the satisfying taste of sweet and sour. To be fair, I really loved the caramel and would have eaten it solo, if my Mom permitted me to do so. She didn’t. 🙂 My love of caramel apples remains to this day, so I was excited to find a salad that played homage to a childhood favorite.
If you’re looking for a healthy salad, please make my Autumn Quinoa Salad instead, because this is a naughty salad, although the apples keep it from being completely sinful. It is, however, 100% delicious. I made it for my family with the best of intentions: to share it with others so I didn’t eat the whole, darn bowl.
The good news? Everyone loved it. My brother even put a big scoop on his angel food cake. The bad news? I forgot to take pictures of the salad. It was a hectic day as we were celebrating both my Dad’s birthday and my nephew, Andy, leaving for college. Photos were the last thing on my mind until now. Granted, zero tears were shed when I realized my mistake. 🙂
The combination of flavors in this salad, with the sweet/tartness of apples and crunch from the caramelized pretzels, hit all the right notes. It also comes together relatively quickly, although the caramelized pretzels require an additional but easy step.
I recommend adding the caramelized pretzels right before serving, so they remain crunchy. Otherwise they soften over time, but the salad still tasted great the next day. We agreed it tasted a tad better when the pretzels were crunchy, but we still, somehow, managed to clean our plates. 🙂 This salad will make a welcome addition this Fall to any festivity — tailgate party, Halloween or Thanksgiving — or any meal.
Caramel Apple Pretzel Salad
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups pretzels, roughly chopped
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups diced apples (about 2 large apples)
- 1/2 - 3/4 cup caramel sauce
- 3 cups whipped topping or whipped cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a bowl, mix together pretzels, brown sugar, cinnamon and melted butter.
- On a non-stick baking sheet, spread mixture in a single layer and bake for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Break into bite-size pieces.
- In a medium bowl, beat softened cream cheese and caramel sauce until smooth. Gently fold in whipped topping. Stir in diced apples.
- If serving immediately, stir in caramelized pretzels. If not, refrigerate apple salad and stir in caramelized pretzel right before serving.
Notes
I've used both Marzetti Old Fashioned Caramel Dip and regular caramel sauce. Both were delicious!
Recipe lightly adapted from The Gunny Sack
Enjoy!
Tanya
A Few More Apple Recipes
Tis the season for apples and I have some great recipes for you!
Apple Monkey Bread with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
Monkey bread by itself is divine. But paired with some cinnamony apples and maple cream cheese frosting takes it to a whole different level.
Get the recipe, here.
Apple Galette
There used to be a restaurant I loved in Minneapolis that made an amazing apple galette. This is my homemade version. So good!
Get the recipe, here.
Apple Crisp with Salted Caramel Sauce
I know Apple Pie is consider all-American but for me, it’s apple crisp. Our family loves apple crisp, especially when you add a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce.
Get the recipe, here.
I think I got a cavity just looking at all these pictures, Tanya! They all look super yummy 🙂
They are yummy and probably cavity-inducing too. 🙂
All of these recipes look SO yummy! I think I’m going to try the monkey bread first. 🙂
Oh, I hope you love the monkey bread, Laurie. I’m a huge fan, but of course, I love carbs! And I know you do too. 🙂