Halloween recipe: Caramel Toffee Fruit Dip

Confession time: I do not really enjoy food that looks like other non-food things, particularly gross things. Like, I'm not really interested in eating carrot sticks that look like fingers or Jell-o worms or brains. Understandable, right? For some reason, my own non-gelatin brain just can't get past the idea of eating something that should never enter a human mouth, ever. I usually manage to eat them but I'm not super-excited about it.

Every year, my in-laws host a themed Halloween dinner. This year, Dill's mom asked me to bring a "cute" Halloween-themed fruit side to the dinner, and I was at a loss as to what that should be. I looked on Pinterest and all I found were a lot of nasty-looking brains, fingers and worms. So I turned to my girls at Our Best Bites for a delicious and not creepy solution (I can always count on Sara and Kate!).

Oh yeah. Nothing says Halloween quite like caramel apples, right? I loved this twist on a classic fall goody, and I think you will too. Especially because it's SO easy! And made mostly of cream cheese. What's not to love?

Here's the full recipe, including a tutorial on how to make cute bat- and pumpkin-shaped cinnamon dipping chips.

Caramel Toffee Fruit Dip (courtesy of Our Best Bites)

1-8 oz. package of cream cheese
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1.8 tsp (pinch) nutmeg
1/2 bag of toffee chips

(I left my cream cheese out for about a half hour to soften it up a little.)

With an electric hand mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar and spices until fluffy. Resist urge to sppon the entire mixture into your mouth. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Then, gently mix in the toffee chips, spoon into a hollowed out pie pumpkin (the cute little ones) and top with a handful of extra toffee chips.

Serve with Granny Smith apples or other fruit dippers.

And most importantly, ENJOY!