It's Fall Y'all!

It's officially autumn. I was hoping for a little more transition between 110 degree summer days and cool, rainy Fall days, but that isn't happening. Instead we've had a week of rain. Down-pouring rain. A remnant of Hurricane Lee that has apparently stalled over the mid-Atlantic. So, in lieu of rushing straight for the pumpkin and sweet potato recipes, I thought I'd venture into some new territory with apples. Everyone seems to be forgetting apples this year. Bring me an apple pie, someone! Cider donuts from Weber Farm! Hello? Anyone out there?

Enter: Caramel Apple Cream Cheese Dip

Kind of looks like a really cute baked brie!

So I found this recipe on Pinterest earlier this week and thought I'd give it a whirl. As usual, I made some adjustments to the recipe. Here are my changes:

In lieu of 12 oz of cream cheese in the recipe, I used two 8 oz packages of cream cheese. Since I don't like things overly sweet, I kept the same amount of vanilla, heavy cream, and powdered sugar. Instead of making caramel sauce, I bought the Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce at Trader Joe's. And instead of Heath bar chips (I'm not big on chocolate with my caramel apple), I used the Pecan Pralines from Trader Joe's.

I followed the same steps that were outlined in the original recipe...lining a 6 inch bowl with plastic wrap.

Mixing the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and cream together with a mixer.

Whip it. Whip it good!

Chopped up the pecans.

I probably chopped up about a cup of pecans
(I never measure anything either...I would not be a very good cookbook writer).

Starting first with a layer of the cream cheese mixture (use half), next layer about half of the caramel sauce.

Then sprinkle the pecans on top of the caramel.

Add the rest of the cream cheese mixture, fold the ends of the plastic wrap over the dish (I have a lid for this dish that I used after folding the wrap over the dip) and refrigerate overnight.

Then you invert the bowl onto a plate, drizzle with a little more caramel sauce on top, and sprinkle with pecans. Enjoy!