Friday, January 19, 2018

Caramel Popcorn


It's National Popcorn Day and I'm over here celebrating! I love love love popcorn! I can't believe how warm and dry the weather is out here in Southern Utah this year. It's kind of scary, so hopefully we'll get some moisture soon! As much as I love the movie theater, sometimes I just prefer sitting at home and watching a movie with some popcorn in my pajamas and fuzzy socks. I'm so much more comfortable and it's way cheaper too! But, I swear that my attention span is totally lost during a full-length movie unless I have something to munch on. And that's usually (okay, always) popcorn! I love the microwave stuff, picking up a bucket from the theater and bringing it home, or even air popped corn from home. But the special treat is the rarely-made caramel popcorn.


When we were first married and I discovered how good this stuff was, I made it a ton. Bad idea, surprisingly (not really) it's not that good for you. So now, we decided to make it a special treat when we want to indulge in the goodness of it. It's a sweet caramel sauce that is made perfection with the sweetened condensed milk. My in-laws make it and it's one of the best things ever! I'd say that it's part of the reason why I married my husband, but I actually never even had it until we were engaged. I'm pretty particular about food and if I haven't liked something before, I'm not very willing to try it. When I was younger, I had caramel popcorn but but it was more of a hard coating than this and I didn't like it. So, after they told me "caramel popcorn" I was pretty much thinking no way, but I took a little so I wouldn't be rude and I was hooked. Best stuff ever.


It's a pretty simple thing to make. I usually use air popped corn from home, but I've also tried it with movie theater popcorn and oh my gosh, it's even better! You can make the popcorn beforehand, and I like to filter the kernels out so you're not wasting any of the caramel on those things. One thing to make sure of when adding everything together on the stove top is to make sure it doesn't burn and that you're stirring regularly. It's better to keep it a little bit lower and let it take more time to boil other than it burning. It also rises and bubbles quite a bit, so you need to keep your eye on this stuff. And that's a reason why you need a LARGE pot. I even use my stock pot sometimes so I don't have to worry about it overflowing when I blink. The recipe can also be found on my sister-in-law's blog High Heels and Grills.


Ingredients
1 cup popcorn kernels, popped (abut 25 cups popped)
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk



Directions

  1. You can pop the popcorn in advance, make sure to filter out the seeds, set aside in a large bowl with extra mixing room (can put in two bowls if needed)
  2. Combine brown sugar and corn syrup in a pot, stir and let it come to a boil
  3. Add butter, stir, and bring to a boil
  4. Add sweetened condensed milk, stir, and bring to a boil
  5. Make sure everything it mixed and pour over popcorn while mixing together
Recipe was retrieved from High Heels and Grills and I adapted the directions 

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