This snicker apple salad is fresh apples and chopped candy bars in a sweet and creamy dressing. A quick and easy dessert or side dish that always gets rave reviews and is so easy to make!
Sometimes salads can double as desserts in cases such as creamy berry cheesecake salad, classic ambrosia salad, and this fun and festive snicker apple salad.
If you haven’t tried snicker apple salad, you’re totally missing out! This is a unique and unexpected dish is a dessert salad that’s great for parties and potlucks, and tastes almost like a caramel apple but without all the work.
Salad Ingredients
This recipe consists of vanilla pudding mix, milk, whipped topping (such as Cool Whip), Granny Smith apples, snickers bars and caramel sauce.
How do you make snicker apple salad?
Start by whisking together instant vanilla pudding and milk in a large bowl. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes so the pudding can start to set, then gently fold in thawed whipped topping. Add diced apples and cut up snickers bars to the bowl. Stir gently to combine. Refrigerate the snickers salad until you’re ready to serve it. Add a garnish of caramel sauce for added sweetness and more candy bars, then enjoy.
Tips for the perfect dish
- Granny Smith apples are often used in this dish because they are tart apples with a flavor that is a great counterpart to the sweet candy bars and dressing. That being said, other varieties will also work such as Pink Lady, Braeburn, Gala, Fuji, Red Delicious, Jonagold, Jazz and Honeycrisp. You can even use a few different varieties of apples!
- This apple snickers salad will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 8 hours. Add the garnishes right before you serve it. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. I recommend enjoying the leftovers within a day or two of when the salad is made.
- If you’re looking to cut back on your sugar intake, it’s fine to use sugar free pudding mix and sugar free whipped topping.
- Snicker apple salad can be served as a side dish, or as a dessert, it’s really up to you!
Recipe FAQs
Try soaking your diced apples in lemon water or lemon lime soda before you put them in the salad to keep them from turning brown.
This is a sweet salad, which means we are pairing apple with its perfect counterpart: caramel! The snickers bars include plenty of that caramel, along with other flavor and textural components such as peanuts and chocolate. For a more traditional sweet and savory apple salad, you can combine apples with pecans, bacon, pomegranate, blue cheese or almonds, along with greens such as spinach or kale.
Snicker apple salad flavor variations
This salad is so delicious as is, but you can add other ingredients to make your own creations.
- Dressing: If you’re not a fan of whipped topping, you can use an equal amount of freshly made whipped cream. Do not use the whipped cream that comes in an aerosol can as it will deflate and turn liquid. You can also use butterscotch pudding instead of vanilla.
- Candy: Swap out the snickers bars for other chocolate caramel candy creations such as Milky Way, Baby Ruth, or Twix bars. If you’re looking to use up extra Halloween candy you can even do a combination of different types of candy bars! Be sure to cut up the candy into bite-sized pieces.
- Flavorings: Add more flavor to your salad by stirring in chopped pecans, walnuts or peanuts. You can also incorporate miniature marshmallows, coconut, a little lemon juice, or even miniature chocolate chips.
This salad is one of my all-time favorite ways to enjoy apples. I love how simple it is to make, and the recipe can easily be doubled or tripled for a large crowd.
More great apple recipes
Snicker Apple Salad
Ingredients
- 3.4 ounce box instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 cup milk
- 8 ounces whipped topping thawed
- 6 cups Granny Smith Apples diced
- 5 snickers candy bars diced, plus more for garnish
- 2 tablespoons caramel sauce
- mint for garnish optional
Instructions
- Place the vanilla pudding mix and milk in a large bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Let the pudding mixture sit for 3-5 minutes or until pudding is just set.
- Add the whipped topping to the bowl. Use a spatula to gently fold the whipped topping into the pudding.
- Add the apples and snickers bars to the bowl. Stir gently to combine.
- Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for later use. Right before serving, garnish with additional chopped snickers and a drizzle of the caramel sauce.
- Garnish with mint if desired.
Notes
- You can use other types of apples such as Pink Lady or Honeycrisp.
- To keep the cut apples from turning brown, try soaking them in lemon water or lemon lime soda.
I made with my daughters over the weekend for a special treat. We loved all the textures and sweet flavor.
Now this is one heck of a special salad. The kids are going to go wild for it!
This was such a fun treat to make with my kids after school today! They loved that we put candy in a “salad”! 🙂
Creamy, crunchy and very tasty. This was a big hit with my crew, will definitely be making this on repeat.
never had the chance to make this recipe! but this time def gonna try it! and it looks so amazing! thanks for the recipe Sara!
This was a sweet treat that brought back so many fun memories! This was a fun twist on a vintage sweet salad!
This is such a fun dessert recipe. The apples work so well with the creamy chocolatey snicker dressing.
What a creative recipe! I knew I had to make it as soon as I saw it. I had it as a dessert and our kids loved it!
I would have never thought that snickers and apple can go so well together, but both the flavours and textures went very well together. Almost like a deconstructed caramel apple! Great easy recipe! Thanks!
This salad is totally irresistible! Everyone loved it! Creamy, crunchy and yummy!
I grew up in the midwest and totally remember eating this dessert salad! It’s so, so good! It was fun to make for my kids!
This is my kind of salad and dessert!
Oh how fun! I love how you made this apple salad with diced pieces of snickers. Such an easy and delicious dessert.
What an interesting twist to apple salad. SO delicious. Thanks for sharing
This was such an easy to make, delicious and fun dessert for our family! Everyone loved it!