Saturday, October 25, 2008

Oven Baked Caramel Corn


I think one of my favorite kitchen gadget purchases of this year is our hot air popcorn popper. Its so easy to use and makes eating popcorn much healthier. We have been working on it for a while but think we finally found the perfect butter/salt ratio when making regular popcorn. Today, I decided to branch out and make caramel popcorn using a Paula Deen recipe I had clipped awhile back. It turned out perfectly and was a great snack to eat while watching college football on a beautiful fall day. I'm definitely looking forward to making this again and have already started thinking of different additions. I also can't wait to try a chocolate popcorn recipe I saw recently. I halved this recipe without any difficulties. The recipe below is the full recipe.

Oven Baked Caramel Popcorn
Source: Christmas With Paula Deen as published in The Dallas Morning News on December 10, 2007

7-8 quarts popped popcorn
2 cups unsalted peanuts, shelled pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds (I omitted)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp maple flavored pancake syrup (I used real maple syrup)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 250 F. Coat rimmed cookie sheets or jellyroll pans generously with vegetable-oil cooking spray, or rub with shortening.

Place the popcorn and your choice of nuts or seeds into a very large bowl. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter, salt, syrups and vanilla. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and continue boiling 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and add the baking soda. The mixture will bubble. Stir vigorously until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the hot syrup over the popcorn mix. Stir until the popcorn is coated. This is messy; take your time and use a long-handled spoon.

Spread the coated popcorn in the prepared pans. Bake 1 hour, stirring several times. The mixture will be very sticky.

Remove the popcorn from the oven and allow to cool 15 minutes. Break big hunks apart while mixture is cooling. Store in large, airtight plastic containers.

1 comment:

Cate said...

I love my air popper too. This looks incredibly good!