How to Store Caramel Apples (Short Term, Long Term, and for Travel) (2023)

As autumn turns the trees into warm earthy colors, people will begin enjoying some of the festive treats that the change in season has to bring. With autumn comes the harvest, which means that more people will be enjoying treats based on apples and pumpkins and everything else in between these.

A very popular treat that comes with the season is the caramel apple.

Chances are that if your city has an autumn festival of any sort, you will end up coming home with a caramel apple or two. In some cases, you may even decide to make this treat for yourself.

After all, it is incredibly easy to make and it can satisfy anyone from adult to child. The problem comes with the fact that many people will not eat an entire apple at once, let alone two or three.

Because these treats are not known for keeping for very long, you might feel at a loss as to what you should do. While the best option will be to only purchase or make as many caramel apples as you know what to do with, there will come a time when you need to end up saving caramel apples for later.

Thankfully, there are a couple different ways that you can store your caramel apples without needing to go through too much hassle.

Storage Methods Depend on How Long You Are Storing the Apples

Before you can really start preparing to store your caramel apples though, you are going to need to think about how long it will take you to get to eating them.

In optimal circumstances, you should try and eat your caramel apples as soon as you can so that you can preserve the freshness of the apple. In times when you cannot do this, you can expect your caramel apples to last for about two weeks before they begin going bad.

The way that you store your apples will depend heavily on whether you are planning to eat the apple within an hour’s time or not. Short-term storage can be defined as eating the apple within the hour, and you won’t have to do too much to store it aside from making sure the caramel doesn’t get onto other surfaces.

Long-term storage for caramel apples can be defined as waiting longer than that initial hour to eat the apple. If you aren’t planning on eating the apple immediately, then you should try and put it in the fridge, as this will lengthen the amount of time that the apple will stay fresh and ready to be eaten.

A caramel apple in the fridge can last for around two weeks, assuming that storage and food conditions are optimal.

Finally, there are cases where you are storing caramel apples for transportation. Here, you may be taking the apples to friends, family, or even to the public to be sold.

Because you won’t be in a home environment, the way that you store the apples will differ from what you would do if you were simply storing the apple as you would any other time.

These are the three major conditions that you will be storing your caramel apples in, and each one is tailored specifically to allow the apple to remain fresh but without altering its taste at all.

Storing Apples on the Counter

The situation is that you have just made or purchased some caramel apples, but before you can get around to eating them, a home situation has occurred and you have to tend to that first.

You will need to consider how you are going to store your caramel apple for the hour that you will be gone, and whether or not it will be worth putting the apple in the fridge, where the environment is optimal for storage.

When you are working with an hour’s time after you have the caramel apple, putting it into the fridge is not going to make that big a difference. Instead of taking up space in your fridge, you will want to put the apples on your counter, or someplace in your kitchen or at your desk that is away from harsh light.

This will ensure that the apple will not be in a place that will deteriorate its condition, so that when you come back to eat it, you can enjoy it thoroughly.

Because of the caramel and the fact that it may begin to melt at room temperature, you will want to take some precautions first. You should wrap the caramel apple in cellophane if it has not already been wrapped.

This will not only protect your surroundings from getting caramel on them, but it will also protect the apple from coming into contact with dust and having that dust stick to the caramel.

If you do not have cellophane, you can also consider storing the apples in a container that you can place out of the way. This will also keep the apple safe from picking up anything in the environment that you do not want in your caramel, such as dust and dirt floating in the air.

As long as you store the apples away from the light, you will have about one hour to eat your apples before you will want to switch to storing them in the fridge.

Storing Apples in the Fridge

If you are going to be waiting more than an hour to eat your caramel apples, there are a few extra steps that you will want to take just to be on the safe side about your apples. In the container that you would be using to put the apples in, you may want to consider using wax paper to separate multiple apples.

The wax paper is going to be helpful in making sure the apples don’t stick together and it is something that can be easily removed if it becomes stuck to the apple itself.

Next you will want to make sure that the container you have put the apples into is airtight. You should then put that container into the fridge where your apples can be in the best environment possible.

Here, you can expect your caramel apples to last for no more than two weeks before the insides start going bad. If you open up the apple and realize that the center has browned, this is an indicator of the apple going bad and that the apple needs to go.

While it is true that freezers will often offer a more long-term solution, it is not optimal to put apples in the freezer. Apples have a high water content to them and the naturally dry environment of the freezer will cause major issues in the taste and texture of the apple.

For the sake of your apple’s taste, you should stick to keeping them in the fridge.

Storing Apples for the Car

In cases where you are travelling and have a caramel apple in the car, you may not know how to create a good environment to store it. You will always want to protect the caramel coating from picking up anything inside the car, so remember to either individually wrap the apples in cellophane or plastic bags.

Once you have done this, you will want to place those apples in an airtight container with a lid that you can seal. In a sense, this will be much the same method as you would use to store caramel apples on the countertop, as the conditions in both the car and the countertop are roughly the same.

If you are going to be in the car for more than an hour, you will want to pack the apples into a cooler that has ice in it. If you do not have a cooler that you can dedicate to the caramel apples, any insulating container will work fine.

Your goal of this is to simulate the cold environment of the fridge, but not quite the dry environment of the freezer.