Caramel Corn Recipe
Game Day Recipe~ Caramel Corn
My sister Barb gave me this recipe for Caramel Corn many years ago. In fact, I wrote the recipe on the back of a paper bag with a green crayon! When my kids were young, every year we would have an old-fashioned style Christmas tree. We would decorate our tree with old Christmas cards, candy canes, gingerbread men and gumdrops. The kids would spend hours stringing cranberries, gumdrops and popcorn, to decorate our Christmas tree with. I always made a few extra batches of popcorn so I could make caramel corn and because the kids ate more popcorn, than they strung up!
Back in the "olden" days, I popped popcorn the old-fashioned way. With an old beat up pan that had a lid that didn't fit quite right. I would plop a big spoonful of crisco in the bottom of the pan, heat it up until it was super hot, cover the bottom of the pan with popcorn kernels, put the ill-fitting lid back on and pop away!! I loved to eat "the old maids" as we called them. To this day, I still make popcorn this way....minus the beat up pan and ill-fitting lid....I still miss that old popcorn pan:( I'm still a little mad at my hubby for taking it to the Goodwill...with out telling me...but it has been close to 15 years since he dumped the popcorn pan off at the Goodwill, so I guess I can forgive him:)
I would make enough extra popcorn to fill a large roasting pan, the kind of roaster that holds a 15-20 lb turkey. When the pan was full, I would start on making the caramel sauce. Making caramel corn is really very easy and you can't beat the taste. As my kids grew older and we grew away from having an old-fashioned, homespun style Christmas tree, I started making Caramel Corn for football games and have been ever since. There is something about munching on caramel corn during a game!
- Old Fashioned Caramel Corn
- 7-8 quarts popcorn
- * optional: 1 cup mixed nuts
- 2 sticks butter
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- *1/2 cup maple syrup butter, optional
- 1 t vanilla extract
- 1 t salt
- 1/2 t baking soda
Preheat oven to 250ยบ
Place popped popcorn, and nuts if using, in a large roasting pan.
In a medium sauce pan add: butter, brown sugar, light corn syrup, maple syrup butter, if using, vanilla extract and salt. Bring to a boil and boil 5 minutes. Carefully stir in 1/2 t baking soda. Pour over popcorn in roasting pan. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove roaster from oven, immediately and carefully dump popcorn onto an aluminium foil lined counter top or baking sheets. Cool completely, breaking up any large chunks. Store popcorn in large baggies or air tight containers.
* I found this awesome Maple Syrup Butter while shopping at my favorite grocery store, Trig's in Rhinelander WI. This store is wonderful!! If you have been following my blog, you know how much I love grocery stores!! I can spend hours and hours in a grocery store. Trig's has everything, and that only means one thing.....I will be there for awhile! What's even better, Trig's has a wonderful soup & salad bar and a great deli! You can always grab a bite to eat if you get hungry! The Maple Syrup Butter gave this popcorn a wonderful flavor. It's awesome on pancakes and I can't wait to try the Cinnamon Sugar Butter. A little about Nordic Creamery ~ Award-winning Cheesemaker and Buttermaker, Al Bekkum and his family live on the Bekkum-Langaard Farmstead. Owned and operated by their family since immigration from Norway in 1917. The farm is located in Westby, WI. Here is a short list of products that they offer: Grumpy Goat, Mountain Jack, Sarah Select and Capriko cheeses. Cinnamon Sugar Butter, Summer Butter, Harvest Butter, and Spesiell Kremen Butter.
Note: The opinions stated here are my own. I was not asked nor was I being compensated by Nordic Creamery or Trig's.