Caramel Apple Dip

Here's a quick and easy recipe that is an absolute MUST for your next Halloween party. I've seen it bouncing around social media for some time now, and I figured I should give it a try. Actually, I already knew it would be delicious because I have yet to meet anything caramel that I don't absolutely LOVE.
 OMG I can't even tell you how delicious it is! I'm not even gonna lie, I was eating it out of the bowl with a spoon. Definitely a huge hit with my gang of friends. It was a good thing I made a double batch because we quickly needed to refill the serving bowl! And then we discovered that this dip is AMAZINGLY good on pretzels! It's that whole salted caramel thing, which I can never resist. Your guests won't be able to resist it either. Enjoy!

16 individual Kraft caramels, unwrapped
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 8oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Sliced apples

 In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt caramels with milk, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Stir in salt and set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, cream together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Fold in caramel mixture into the cream cheese mixture.
Serve with apple slices or pretzels.

Tips:
Obviously, if you add the hot caramel to the cream cheese mixture, it will melt the cream cheese and you'll wind up with a sauce, rather than a dip. But just let it chill in the fridge for a while. It will set up.
If you don't feel like unwrapping caramels, you can purchase caramel morsels instead. That's what I did! It's SO much easier!
To keep your sliced apples from turning brown, place them in a big bowl of water into which you've added some freshly squeezed lemon juice. You can also toss the apple slices with a little splash of orange juice. The citric acid will keep the apples from turning brown.
I bet this recipe would work equally as well with peanut butter as it does with caramel. I'm definitely gonna have to give that a try!