The Best Caramel Corn--by Sue

My name is Sue, Karolyn is a dear friend of mine.

She asked for my Caramel Corn recipe and keeps buggin' me to be a guest blogger--so here goes!

This is my second post as a guest blogger on FOODjimoto, my first was the German Chocolate Cake.

This is the best caramel corn ever!

I got this recipe from Nikki who is a dear friend of my dear friend, Margie.

That would make Nikki my dear friend once removed.


There's the caramel corn, in a canister ready to go out as a gift, with the candle I always light every time I bake.

These are all the ingredients needed to make The Best Caramel Corn in the World!

After turning the oven on to 225 degrees F, pop 1 cup of popcorn.

The lid of an airpopper holds 1/2 cup of kernals, so you need to pop 2 batches.

Your roasting pan will overflow, but don't worry, once you top with the caramel it shrinks a little bit.

This is what 1 cup of popped popcorn looks like.

To make the caramel, melt 1 lb. of butter, then stir in 2 cups medium packed golden brown sugar, 1/2 cup of light corn syrup and 1/4 tsp. of salt.  


Bring these four ingredient​s to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium, and boil for 4 to 5 minutes.

Now we make the magic happen!

Remove mixture from heat and sprinkle in 1 tsp. of baking soda.

Then add 1 tablespoon of Pure Vanilla Extract.

Stir well until mixture becomes light and foamy.  


My 2 qt. saucepan nearly overflows everytime, but I pour it over the popcorn as soon as it is nice and foamy and have never had one drop to clean on my stove.

Immediatel​y pour foamy caramel over the popped corn as evenly as possible.

Now the difficult part--stir and stir and stir--until the popcorn is evenly coated.  


It helps to stir, then turn the pan several times, to get the popcorn well coated.

See, it can be done!  


This takes about 5 minutes of stirring.

Place in your pre-heated oven for one hour, stirring every 20 minutes.  


It is very important that you stir from the bottom to make sure the caramel corn is baked evenly.

Clean-up is very easy.  


I had everything except my stirring spoon and big roasting pan washed and put away in about 10 minutes.

When you take the caramel corn out of the oven, you again need to stir and stir and stir, until the popcorn is cool and doesn't stick together--about 10 minutes, tops.

Now that the caramel corn is nice and cool, poor it into an airtight container.  


When I make it as a gift, I first poor it into a plastic baggy with a twist tie (these are difficult to find, I found some at Albertson'​s last Christmas) then place it into a tin or box.

Always keep your caramel corn in an airtight container until you serve it.  It will get soggy pretty quickly, but stays fresh for about a week in the container.




Enjoy!



***

This is the candle I light when I'm baking. 

It was a gift to me from my sister Joan​ne after successful​ly undergoing her first round of chemotherap​y over 11 years ago. 

 She gave one to my sister Patty, my mom, and myself, thanking us for our support while she went through that horrible ordeal. 

She asked us to light it whenever we were thinking of her. 

Joanne passed away on October 6, 2009, so I would have it lit every minute of every day if I were to light it everytime I thought of her--so I choose to light it when I'm baking and my kitchen smells sweet. 

I also light it when my house is filled with family and friends,

Because Joanne hates to miss a party.

No printable recipe for this one, yet.