Caramel corn

I'm a big fan of sweets, especially anything that has chocolate. I'm also a fan of crunchy snacks. Several months back, a friend shared a recipe she'd found for caramel corn, one of my favorites! I love popcorn in general, it's a great, satisfying, and light snack. Since I'm hosting a game watch party tomorrow night for Game 1 of the NBA playoffs, I figured there'd be enough people for me to share with. So I got started tonight!

The original recipe is available here. I've modified it a bit due to the ingredients I tend to have on hand as well as just taste. So here we go:

Ingredients:

• 15 cups popped plain popcorn (from about 1/2 cup kernels)
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup syrup
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Place the popped popcorn in a baking pan, lined with baking paper, in the oven, set at 250°F. I use a Presto Air Popper to pop my kernels rather than the stove top. It can pop up to 15 cups of popped popcorn and it takes less than 3 minutes! It's also really good at popping all the kernels. Be careful though, some kernels will come flying out and they are HOT.
2. Over medium heat, mix the brown sugar, butter, syrup, and salt in a medium-sized pan. Bring it to a boil, about 5 minutes, occasionally stirring. Then leave it alone for 3 minutes. Be careful with any bubbles that form, as the next step will make the sauce grow.
3. Take the pan off the heat and mix in the vanilla and baking soda. This will cause the sauce to grow and become airy. Be careful that any bubbles that form don't burst near skin, it can burn you pretty bad.
4. Use a whisk or wooden spoon to mix in the new ingredients for about 15 seconds. Then drizzle the caramel on the popcorn. Resist the temptation to try one, hot caramel will burn your tongue worse than you can imagine. Trust me :)
5. Use the wooden spoon to evenly distribute the caramel. Be careful not to crush the popcorn.
6. Place the baking pan in the oven for 15 minutes, then take it out and use the wooden spoon to stir the popcorn. You'll find that the caramel will concentrate in one random section, so take a just 15 seconds to move it all around and make sure it's even. Again, resist trying a piece.
7. You'll repeat step 6 for one hour, so you should stir it a total of 3 times (15, 30, 45). When it comes out, you'll have a fairly evenly distribute caramel corn. Set it aside for about 10 minutes to let it cool and become crispy.

The easiest way to move this to a bowl is to just pick up the baking paper and roll it up inside a bowl and then start breaking the popcorn from the outside. Once it's cooled off, it can be a bit messy to move it around.

This recipe will keep for one week in an airtight container. You can add more baking soda if you want it to be crispier or more popcorn if you want less caramel chunks.

Enjoy!!