Can popcorn change your life? What a silly question - of course not! Caramel corn, on the other hand, just may. This is a sticky recipe, but produces great results.
Ingredients:
approximately 10 cups popcorn
1c packed light brown sugar
1/4 c light corn syrup
6 Tbs melted butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda (measure early and set aside)
1 Tbs vanilla extract (measure early and set aside)
This would be tasty with some chopped nuts in it as well.
Preheat your oven to 250* and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Pop your popcorn and be sure to get rid of any old maids. I put my popcorn in a pyrex 13x9x2 pan for the ease of spreading the hot, sticky caramel, but a really big/wide mouth bowl would work too. It occurs to me that next time I do this, I will probably butter or nonstick spray whatever I toss my popcorn in to get the most caramel on the popcorn and not stuck to the dish.
In a medium sized saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, melted butter and salt with 2 Tbs of water and whisk together. Measure and have very close by your vanilla and baking soda. You don't want to measure them in the moment. Believe me.
Put saucepan on medium high heat and bring caramel sauce to a boil, whisking constantly. Cook until you get to 250* on a candy thermometer. Once you're there, remove pan from heat and dump in baking soda and vanilla and immediately whisk like crazy lest your gooey sauce ooze over the sides of the pan. Again, believe me.
Pour caramel over waiting popcorn and toss gently with a spatula distributing as best you can. But don't worry - you'll have three more shots as distributing your caramel. Pour sticky popcorn goodness onto parchment lined pan and spread out as evenly as possible.
Put in the oven for a total of 1 hour, stirring/turning/tossing popcorn every 20 minutes. Let cool, gently break up and store (whatever you don't eat immediately) in an airtight container. The hour in the oven is definitely worth the wait!
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