I have this disease where I HAVE to have something sweet after dinner. If not, I end up grazing all night aimlessly. It doesn’t even have to be something elaborate… even a mini chocolate bar will do. Sometimes I’ve been known to eat a spoon of brown sugar and call it a night. Is that gross of me?
Last night I didn’t have any sweet treats laying around so I decided to whip up a batch of caramel corn. Strangely enough I had everything on hand to make some.
The first order of business was popping some popcorn. I have to admit, I’m kind of anti-microwave popcorn. A lot of the time they have transfat AND once I read something about the coating on the bags being a possible carcinogen. I’m totally not one of those people who follows those reports but for some reason that really creeped me out. So in my household we buy the loose kernels and pop them on the stove. It’s super easy to do and probably healthier since you can use less oil.
I popped about 1/3 cup of kernels and the yield was about 8 cups. Perfecto. Then I melted about 1c of brown sugar with 2tbsp butter and 3tbsp corn syrup. I also added a bit of water and brought the mixture to a boil. The goal is to dissolve the sugar. I used a candy thermometer with the idea of getting the temperature up to 300F but got bored at around 260F and gave up.
From there you take the mixture off the stove. I stirred in about a tsp of vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp each of salt and baking soda. The effect of the baking soda is totally cool. It makes the mixture creamy and kind of loosens it up. Throw in the popcorn and voila!
I spread the popcorn mixture on a greased baking sheet and let it cool for 30mins.
And that’s it! For some reason this was the best batch I’ve ever made. Not quite sure why but I’ll go with it. I think next time I’ll make some super decadent caramel corn with chocolate chunks and nuts. Yummm.
