Monday, April 02, 2007

More Treats, Less Knitting

I probably spent more time in the kitchen and working around the house this last weekend than I did knitting. We spread some mulch outside and planted a couple tomato plants. I cleaned the house and caught up on the loads of laundry that had piled up. After all that work, We wanted a sweet treat, but we were a little tired of the cakes and cookies I had been making recently. So I pulled out my grandma's recipe for caramel popcorn and decided to make a batch.

I love caramel popcorn but it is something I rarely eat. I don't buy it. The store bought just doesn't taste the same as homemade. It is really easy to make. It is tasty, but it is loaded with sugar. Here's the recipe if you want to make your own. It makes a lot so be ready to share.

21 cups of popcorn
2 cups light brown sugar
1 cups of butter
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoons baking soda

Mix salt, butter, sugar, and corn syrup in pan on stove top. Heat to boil and simmer five minutes. Take pan off stove and stir in baking soda. Pour over popcorn and mix well to coat all popcorn. Place uncovered in a 200 degree oven for about an hour; stir every 15 minutes. After taking out of oven, spread out and cool on waxed paper. When cool, store in an airtight container.

The popcorn should be made with an air popper and free of any salt, butter, or oil. I don't really measure the popcorn I make two - three batches with my air popper. I've never tried microwave popcorn, but I don't think it would work very well. When cooking the caramel mixture, use a large sauce pan. When the baking soda is added at the end, the caramel will expand. I use a large deep roasting pan to put the popcorn in the oven.

You can add peanuts or toy surprises as you wish. And as you can see, this batch turned out just fine; just ask my taste tester.

11 comments:

Sue J. said...

Oh, you don't play fair! I can actually smell the caramel corn. Fillings be darned!

Anonymous said...

Must.not.look! I'm trying to be good and you certainly aren't helping :)

I LOVE caramel popcorn; I'm gonna have to print and save this recipe for later (after I lose my winter weight).

Bezzie said...

Oh delish!!!!

gilraen said...

Oh I love that stuff! Thanks for the recipe :)

Anonymous said...

Your grandma would be glad to see this blog entry. Did you always have the air popper or is it a hand me down from grandma? I didn't know they were even still around. Yum - Yum!

cpurl17 said...

drool

eusebius said...

Yum, I know a 4-year-old who would REALLY like me to make this, and a cat who would lick the bowl ;)

Thanks for commenting on my blog and for your sock encouragement!! It is so nice for a new knitblogger to feel part of the community.

Bubblesknits said...

My husband tried to make some a few weeks ago, but he used microwave popcorn and I don't think he added any baking soda either. It tasted good, but something just wasn't quite right. I'll share your recipe with him and we'll try it again. Anyway, yours looks delicous!

Zonda said...

That looks awesome...drooling here! :)

Anonymous said...

My gosh! I absolutely adore caramel popcorn! I can even smell it right through the monitor, and you certainly made me drool all over too ;) Thanks for sharing the recipe - I will *so* try this out!

Alisha said...

That looks very tempting...I am sad that I do not own an air popper....we do the whole microwave thing. That does tempt me enough to think about getting an air popper....mmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!