Optional** Up to 6 hours before serving, core and cut apples into slices. In a very large bowl, dissolve 4 teaspoons of water in approximately 8 cups of cool water. If you need more water to completely cover all of your apples, keep a ratio of 1 teaspoon of salt for every 2 cups of water. Core and cut apples into slices. Place all apples into the salt water bath and stir making sure that they don’t stick together and all sides of the apple get a bath. After a minute or two, drain the salt water and rinse the apples with cool tap water. Drain the apples from the tap water and store them covered in a dry bowl in the fridge until ready to serve.

In a small bowl, beat softened cream cheese and thick caramel or butterscotch topping at a medium speed with a hand mixer until no lumps remain and uniform in color.

Scrape mixture into a 9 inch pie plate or other shallow serving dish that is approximately 8x8 or 9x9. Cover and refrigerate for several hours. Chill the caramel sauce in the fridge at this time as well.

When ready to serve, pour the chilled caramel sauce until it completely covers the cream cheese mixture. You may not need to use all of the caramel sauce. Then sprinkle peanuts on top.

Serve with freshly sliced apples. If you decided not to give the sliced apples a salt water bath, try to cut the apples as close to serving time as possible to prevent browning.