Caramel Cream cheese dip

My sweet tooth had attacked yet again today. I wanted something and for the life of me couldn't think of what. I had just bought some apples for the healthier eating habits I was trying for this year, but I still wanted something dessert type sweet. I had some caramel dip in the fridge but that was too sweet and too addicting. I had some cream cheese fruit dip but again that was sweeter than I wanted and I love that with my blackberries I had also bought. Can you see where my mind is going with this..lol

I decided upon a combination of the two but didn't want to combine them. Now in my pantry there are always dozens of choices. I had some individual wrapped caramels, but I didn't want to go to all of the trouble of melting them down and adding the butter to make the caramel sauce. So I look over and there is a bottle of caramel ice cream topping...mmm perfect! In the fridge is always blocks of cream cheese, a good go to protein for snacks for me when I want something not so good for me.

I whipped up the cream cheese with a hand mixer until it was light and fluffy. The easiest way for me to know when it's whipped light enough is when the cream cheese starts to pull away from the beaters. I started adding the caramel sauce as I whipped it and of course tasting along the way. The cream cheese had a nice caramel look to it but was a bit sweet as I got heavy handed with the caramel. So to cut the sweet a little bit I added some vanilla extract and some cinnamon. Mmmm perfect! It was just the perfect sweetness and dessert taste that I wanted not terribly healthy but I didn't need that much to satisfy my craving

 

 

Voila! This has so many possibilities to it for adding extra things to change the flavor. Right off the top of my head a few additions could be nuts, toffee bits, and chocolate. I'm not a huge cheesecake fan but I am a candy bar junkie :-) Anyway about 2 Tablespoons satisfied me with my apple. I'm thinking this would be yummy with a banana as well.

 

The ingredients:

• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup of caramel ice cream topping
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Enjoy!!