Adventures In Sweet Corn

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I’m not sure why, but I always think of caramel corn as a holiday treat.  Maybe that’s because it was often something my mother would make around Christmas time. Or maybe because I vaguely remember her making “caramel corn balls” (a little bigger than a baseball) to hand out one Halloween.  But there’s no reason you can’t have caramel corn year around…

The recipe I’m going to share with you today is so delicious that when I made it for the blog, I ate almost the whole batch in one sitting and actually made myself sick.  So, caveat before you make this…don’t eat it all at once.

The process is quite easy and takes about an hour.  First, make your popcorn.  I think air-popped is best, although I suppose you could use a couple bags of microwave popcorn in a pinch.  I myself use this microwave popper which my mother donated to my household when she upgraded herself to this microwave popcorn popper.  Both work great.  The recipe will use roughly 8 cups of popped corn, which is about 1/4 cup of unpopped kernels.  Then spread it out on a parchment paper-covered rimmed baking sheet.  You could use a jelly roll pan for this or something a little larger, like my aluminum half-sheet pan.

In a non-stick deep saucepan or large skillet, make your caramel by melting some butter, and then adding brown sugar, corn syrup, and a pinch of salt.  Once this is all mixed together and smooth, boil it for a couple minutes, and then remove it from the heat to add your vanilla and baking soda.  It will bubble up excitingly for a couple minutes, so make sure your pan is large enough to account for that.  Also, this goes a little easier if you use a silicon spatula for stirring rather than a wooden spoon.  But if a wooden spoon is all you have, use it.  Pour your caramel sauce over the popcorn and stir it up as best you can, trying to get all the popcorn coated.

Pop it in the oven for 45 minutes, taking it out every 15 minutes to stir it up.  Each time you stir, the popcorn will get coated a little more evenly.  By the time you take it out, most of it will be covered.  Let it cool long enough that you don’t burn yourself trying to eat it immediately…say, 30 seconds.  Then dig in and enjoy!  This keeps well for a week or two in an airtight container at room temperature.

While this does take up about an hour of your life, it’s not hard and there’s very little actual work involved.  Totally worth it!

Caramel Corn

For printable PDF of recipe, click here.

INGREDIENTS

8 cups popped corn (preferably air-popped)

6 Tbsp butter

1.5 cups brown sugar

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 200º.

Spread the popped corn out on a rimmed baking sheet covered with parchment paper.

In a non-stick large saucepan or skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the brown sugar, salt, and corn syrup and bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a silicon spatula. Boil for 2 minutes, and then remove from heat. Add the vanilla first, and then the baking soda, stirring until it’s smooth again.

Pour the caramel sauce over the the popped corn, and carefully stir to coat as many of the kernels as you can. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, taking it out to stir it again every 15 minutes.

Let cool and then store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.