Caramel Popcorn

My brother has a similar passion for caramel corn as well, and he makes it every Christmas. Every year, I can remember him in the kitchen making boatloads of this sugary treat.

Well, he kindly shared his caramel popcorn recipe with me.

So, I think the original recipe is made in a brown paper bag. Well, I just had too many issues with the paper bag. I won’t go too into details, but let’s just say that the bag was a bit flammable.

So, I decided to tweak the recipe and just use a big microwaveable bowl.

Now, it was a bit dramatic with the bag, but I must admit I love my new revisions. Not calling the fire department is a plus in my book.

19-20 cups of popped popcorn

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup corn syrup

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1. Pop the popcorn on the stove. Then, spray a big bowl with vegetable oil.  Place cooked popcorn in the bowl.

2. In a glass pyrex place butter in it and melt in the microwave about a minute.  Mix in corn syrup, brown sugar, and salt into the melted butter.  Microwave on high and cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring every 1 1/2 minutes. Make sure to watch that it doesn’t boil over the edges of the pyrex.

3. Once the caramel mixture is cooked, immediately add baking soda and vanilla, stir well as the mixture will foam up.

4. Pour caramel over the popcorn in the bowl and stir gently with a spoon.  I added the caramel mixture in stages and stirred after each addition.  Mix popcorn and coat it well with caramel.

5. Microwave the popcorn mixture for 1 1/2 minutes and stir well.

6. Microwave for another 1 1/2 minutes and stir well.

7. Next microwave for 1 minute and stir well.

8. Finally, microwave for 1 minute and stir well. Just make sure the popcorn doesn’t burn.

9. Pour the popcorn mixture onto 2 cookie sheets and let cool.