Chocolate Covered Caramels

These are so fun and easy to make. The ideas for topping decorations are limitless. My favorite way to decorate these was the s'more way. These are perfect for kids to help make, and are a sweet treat. Use whatever kind of chocolate wafers you prefer. I like using dark chocolate as it is a little less sweet which complements the very sweet caramel nicely. The amount of chocolate is approximate.

• Ready In: 21 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 8  vanilla caramels, individually wrapped
• 50  g  chocolate wafers (your choice, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate)

• Toppings (your choice)

•  candy sprinkles
•  peanuts, Unsalted chopped
•  miniature marshmallow
•  graham wafer crumbs
•  raisins

Directions

1. Unwrap the caramels and place the unwrapped caramels on a dinner plate covered in waxed paper.
2. Break wooden skewers into 4 or 5 pieces each (or use round toothpicks or those little plastic swards often used for drinks) and insert a small piece of the skewer into each caramel (to create a small lollypop type appearance).
3. Measure out the chocolate wafers, put chocolate into small ramekin microwavable cups.
4. Microwave on low (I use power 5 or 6) for 10 to 15 seconds at a time, stirring often to ensure the chocolate does not burn.
5. Since you are only covering 8 caramels in chocolate, to make sure the chocolate does not harden, fill a cereal or soup bowl with a small amount of hot tap water; place the ramekin with the melted chocolate in the bowl of water so the warm water surrounds the ramekin - be careful not to get any water in the melted chocolate.
6. Pick up the caramel by its stick and dip into the chocolate; spread the chocolate onto the surface of the caramel (I used a small pickle fork to do this).
7. Immediately dip the chocolate covered caramel into your desired toppings - Note the chocolate hardens very quickly once on the caramel.
8. Place the decorated chocolate caramel back onto the dinner plate so the chocolate can fully harden.
9. Repeat this process with all caramels; once finished store the chocolate covered caramels in a sealed container or wrap individually in plastic wrap for gifts.
10. IDEA - S'more caramel; cut mini marshmallows in half, cover caramel with dark or milk chocolate, immediately place the cut marshmallows onto the chocolate surface of the caramel, let dry, spread a small amount of white chocolate onto each marshmallow and immediately dip in graham wafer crumbs.