One of my favorite things to cook in this cool weather is an apple crisp. With the kids’ candies sitting around, I admit that sometimes I raid their Halloween buckets for caramels and throw them in as well.
Here’s a tasty recipe I like to use:
3 pounds of apples ( Honey Crisp or Fuji, or whatever you like )
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
24 Kraft™ style caramels (unwrapped)
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
sprinkling of chopped peanuts (optional)
Peel, core and chop up the apples, toss them with the lemon juice (it keeps the apples from browning with the air). Chop the caramels in half or so and mix with the apples. In another bowl, combine the flour, sugar, oats, and cinnamon. Cut the butter into eight small pieces and cut it into the flour until the mixture is crumbly… it doesn’t need to be perfect. Put the apples and caramels in a non-stick baking dish (or generously butter a non-nonstick baking dish) and top with the flour-oat-butter mixture.
Bake it at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes, until the apples are soft and delectable and the topping is lightly browned. It’s crisp, remember, not mush. 
If you like, sprinkle the top with the peanuts when you’re done.
Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream.
