The Saner Sweet Snack: Disney Caramel Apples
We’ve been busy weighing, measuring, and analyzing cupcakes these days and, honestly, all this knowledge is making us a little sad. It doesn’t mean we we’ll stop eating those calorie-laden beasts, but we will feel a lot more guilty when we do so. (Maybe.)
Fortunately, there is an equally delicious and much saner treat readily available at Walt Disney World: the caramel apple.
You may recall that our sample Disney parks cupcake we sent to a lab was hefty 1,100 calories. Contrast this with a caramel apple, the base of which is, obviously, an apple. The numbers vary, but most online sources I’ve seen give the calorie count of a Granny Smith apple at 75-90 calories, the apples Disney uses tend to be on the large side, so let’s call it 100 calories.
We don’t know the exact calorie count of the caramel Disney uses, but there are enough cognates out there that it’s easy to guess. A packaged caramel apple wrap is 150 calories. CalorieKing gives the calories for an ounce of caramel candy as 108. Even if we say there’s a generous 2 ounce coating on the apple, that a total of about 200 calories. So, it’s a safe bet to say that the basic caramel apple is 100 calories of apple, plus 200 calories of caramel = 300 calories. This guess is backed up by the Nutritionix calorie count for a caramel apple as 304 calories. For that you get some fiber, a bit of Vitamin A, and some potassium along with your sweet. Adding approximately 1/4 cup of chopped peanuts adds about 200 calories to the nut-coated version, but also adds protein.
Even the caramel apple with nuts is less than half the number of calories as a Disney cupcake. Seems like a good trade to me.
You can find these apples at The Confectionary and Big Top Treats in the Magic Kingdom and Goofy’s Candy Company and Candy Cauldron at Disney Springs. At all these places, there’s chance you would watch the apples being made at a show kitchen.
Disney also sells caramel apples further adorned with chocolate, candy, and decorative sugar will obviously be higher in calories, and we’ll cover that later, but for now we just want to enjoy our delicious, and relatively nutritious, treat.
The plain version costs $5.99, the nut version costs $6.49, and both can be purchased with a Disney Dining Plan snack credit.
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An interesting note that I’d be curious to see if others’ experience reflects is that when we were in Disney World at, I believe, The Confectionery it was offered to have the apple cut up and put in a clam-shell container for taking back to the hotel as the park was closing. Conversely, when we were in Disneyland and asked for the same treatment they said they weren’t allowed to cut them up.
Has anyone else been offered or had the request refused for the caramel apple to be cut up? It’s a great way to eat it without the mess and more conducive to sharing. My wife has made it a bit of tradition to have that as a departing treat/snack at least one evening on a trip to either coast and in California it’s a bummer to try and cut it ourselves in the hotel with a plastic knife.
I don’t have much experience with the Disneyland apples. When I’ve purchased them at Big Top treats and Candy Cauldron they almost always ask if I want the apple cut. At Goofy’s and the Confectionary they’ll usually do it if you ask, but they don’t proactively offer. It may depend on the cast members who happen to be working that shift .
You forgot the best ones. The Werther’s caramel apples in Karamell-Kuche, Germany Pavillion in Epcot.
The Werther’s apples are insanely delicious, mostly because they have thicker layer of caramel than the standard park apples. I was going for a lower-calorie angle here, but yes, if you’re talking pure taste, then that’s they way to go.