Results of my Caramel Corn Recipe

Caramel Corn

A dessert! Or a snack! Or a meal unto itself! Credit to LinDa Grams for the basis of this recipe. Unfortunately, I had to improvise and this is what I did. It came out great.

Ingredients

Directions

Pop the popcorn (either on the stove or in an air popper) and set aside in a large bowl. Do not use butter or salt. If popping on the stove, you'll want to use a tablespoon of vegetable or corn oil as well; don't use too much or it will affect your flavor.

Heat the oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium-sized pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Once melted, add brown sugar and corn syrup. Mix and heat until it begins to reach the soft ball stage (approximately 230-240 degrees). It will take about five minutes. Remove from heat and add the baking soda. It will become foamy and should pull away from the pan a bit.

Pour this mixture (the caramel) over the popcorn in the bowl, taking care to mix without breaking all your popcorn pieces. Nobody wants caramel popcorn crumbs, here. Coat the popcorn as well as you can.

Spread the popcorn over a cookie sheet. You can use a silpat or you can spray it with a non-flavored, non-stick spray. Spread evenly so that none of your popcorn is sticking up too much higher than the rest.

Bake for 15 minutes. After about six or seven minutes, take it out and mix it up. Continue baking.

Remove from oven and dump the whole thing into the clean paper bag. Shake the bag gently, allowing the caramel to more fully coat and cling to the popcorn. Let it rest for a minute and then repeat.

Notes

The recipe I received was twice as much as the one above and it called for an air popper. I halved it and popped mine on the stove. The original recipe also did not specify an oven temperature, but I tried it on 350 degrees and it started to burn the top pieces of popcorn within three minutes. I took it out, stirred it, dropped the oven to 200, and continued. Finally, the major difference in recipes is that the original specified 30-45 minutes of baking. After fifteen, mine was super crunchy and deliciously golden brown. I didn't want to risk burning it, so I stopped there and was extremely satisfied.

Doubling this Recipe

If you want to double it, you should use two cookie sheets. When you take them out of the oven to stir, switch their spots in the oven to spread the love.