Caramel Apple Dip

At the last minute, I decided to bring apples and dip to my youngest daughter's Shakespeare class this afternoon.  We always have lots of cut-up apples in the fridge, so they're easy to grab and go.  But all alone, they'd be boring.  Peanut butter is good with apples, but doesn't shout 'special'.

Back in the dark recesses of my brain lurked a recipe that my family used to make quite often when I was a young adult.  They may still make it, I don't live near them anymore and somehow this was lost from my immediate memory during one of our many moves.  I started thinking about it a couple of weeks ago.  Probably because I'm getting tired of apples with peanut butter!

As you can see from the container, my memory served me well!

Best of all?  It took me less than five minutes to make.  Really.

Apple Dip

1 - 8 oz brick of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tbs vanilla

Using a hand mixer, combine all ingredients and whip until smooth.

Cream Cheese Dip (the original)

2 - 8 oz bricks of cream cheese, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup shelled peanuts (salted or unsalted)

Using a hand mixer, combine cream cheese, brown sugar, and vanilla.  Whip until smooth.   Stir peanuts into the dip by hand.

Serve dip with your favorite apple - my kids love Granny Smith, but I'm more partial to the Gala - or other hard fruit, like pears.  Apples are best, though.


In my haste, I did a quick Allrecipes search to come up with the first recipe (click on the recipe name to go to the Allrecipes version).  After we got back home, I had time to search my recipe box and I found the original recipe my family used.  Can't believe I forgot about the peanuts!

The handwritten recipe card says "Cream Cheese Dip" for the name, but I remember distinctly that we called it "Caramel Apple Dip" when it was mentioned by name.  The peanuts improve this dip from 'good with apples' to 'oh-my-gosh this tastes like a caramel apple".

~ ENJOY!

Merissa at Little House on the Prairie Living hosts an Old Fashioned Recipe Exchange every Tuesday.  If you have a recipe to share you can link your blog post or you can post in the comments.  CLICK HERE to go to this week's exchange!

 

Go ahead, you know you want to look!