Caramel Apple Halloween Munch Mix w/ Printable Topper

It's Halloween Party Week here!  

And I'm kickin' it off with a double feature today ~

If you missed the Halloween Treat Poppers, you can see them here.

The free printable in that post matches the one that that is down below : )

Now I'm going to share a little recipe I came up with for a fun Halloween snack mix.

My sister-in-law makes this incredible popcorn & white chocolate snack mix during the holidays,

called Corny Snack, and that is where I got the inspiration for this fall/Halloween version. 

I'm calling this one Caramel Apple Halloween Munch.

You need: 

one small bag of Fritos corn chips

Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios (Apple Jacks would probably work, too)

Dried Apples (found by the raisins)

one bag of Kraft Caramel Bits (found by the chocolate chips in the baking aisle)

a big bowl of unseasoned popcorn (we used stove-popped)

There is no real science to this.  It's just mixing misc. amounts all together and then 

coating it with the melted caramel bits. I diced up the apple pieces before I added them in.

 I used one large batch of popcorn, the whole bag of Fritos, half the box of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, and the whole bag of Apples.  I think you could double the apples for more of the tangy flavor. 

Toss it around in a big bowl, but it doesn't have to be perfect.  You'll be spreading it out next.

*A note on the popcorn* I dumped the bowl of popcorn into my mix, which was a mistake, because all the unpopped kernels at the bottom went right in with it...and then got coated with sticky caramel.  Hubs nearly hurt a tooth when he was doing a taste test, and then he and I went through the entire batch by hand trying to pick out all the kernels :<  That wasn't easy!  My advice is to sift your bowl of popcorn to settle any kernels at the bottom, then scoop handfuls off the top to add to your mix instead of dumping the bowl in.  This way you avoid the tooth breakers!

Once I had everything combined, I covered my kitchen island with long sheets of waxed paper.  

You could also use cookie sheets if you like.  I lightly sprayed the waxed paper with cooking 

spray, and then evenly spread the munch mix out in a single, loose layer.

I followed the directions on the Caramel Bits bag to melt the entire bag 

plus 2 tablespoons of water in a bowl for two minutes, stirring till smooth.

Once this was melted, and be careful because it's pretty hot!, 

I used a large spoon to drizzle the caramel over the munch mix.

Then I sprayed a rubber spatula with cooking spray and folded it this way and that to coat.

The snacky bits start to stick together in perfect little bite-size clumps of caramel-coated goodness : )

I let this set for an hour or so till the melted caramel cooled.

Then I crumbled it a bit (with clean hands) to break up any bigger chunks.

I filled sandwich ziplock bags about half full to make treat bags.  I got 14 treat bags and

still had enough leftover to fill a large tupperware container.

For the treat bags, I printed my toppers on full page with no borders.  Again, I did not have any white cardstock and had to use brown kraft paper instead, which lost the burlap texture of the patterned paper and made the orange "Halloween" a little harder to read.  I intended to use white, but then discovered I was out.  Of course.  I trimmed the pieces to match the width of my ziplock bags, then folded in the center and fit the topper over the top of the sealed bag.  I folded the bag over about an inch when doing this.  Staple at both ends and you're done!

They came out cute!  And the Caramel Apple Munch Mix is super tasty!

Although I have to say, my super picky kids who won't touch any food that is mixed 

with something else won't even try it.  Stinkers.  Oh well - more for us ; )

Here are the printable treat bag toppers

Just click to open full-size in a separate window, then right click to save and print as needed.

And in case you need toppers for other treats, here is a blank that you can fill in with your own text.

Don't forget ~ these printable treat bag toppers match the cupcake toppers that are found here : )

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Made by You Mondays @ Skip to My Lou