Halloween Treat: Caramel Corn

'Better For You' Caramel Corn

When Kimi at The Nourishing Gourmet posted her recipe for Old Fashioned Caramel Corn (using only unrefined sweeteners), I made it that very night. I almost never eat caramel corn, but it just looked like it would hit the spot. And Oh. My. Goodness. it was good! Actually I kind of messed up the recipe and only measured out 1/2 a cup of popcorn instead of 3/4 cup. So my popcorn was much more caramel-coated, but I decided I liked it that way. (I mean, hubby and I ate almost the entire pot in one sitting, so I’d say it was okay!) It’s a real treat!

Here’s my variation on Kimi’s awesome recipe…decreasing the amount of popcorn, adding salt, and eliminating the “oven step.”

Caramel Corn

10 cups popcorn (about 1/2 a cup unpopped)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup rapadura sugar

1/4 cup honey

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

First, pop the popcorn. We don’t have either a popcorn maker or a microwave, so we pop ours the old fashioned way in a pot on the stove. It’s easy! Here’s how I do it:

1. Get a large pot with a lid that fits. Pour enough oil (I use coconut oil, or sometimes olive oil) into the pot to thinly coat the bottom. Turn the burner onto Medium-high heat (keep at Medium if using olive oil). Put some popcorn into the pot, and put the lid on. I usually use about 1 Tbsp oil for every 1/4 cup un-popped corn.

2. Now, just start sliding the pot back and forth over the burner, holding the lid on with both hands. You’ll want to keep it moving almost constantly. Stay with it, and soon you’ll hear the popcorn start to pop. Just as with microwave popcorn, take the pot off the heat once you hear the popping slow down — you don’t want to burn it. Voila! Easy!

Now, to make the caramel corn:

Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add rapadura, honey, and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Put the popcorn into a large bowl or pot, with plenty of room to stir.

After simmering for 5 minutes, remove saucepan from heat and add the vanilla and baking soda. Stir until well mixed. The baking soda will make the mixture foam up, like this:

Once the mixture foams up, pour it over the popcorn without delay and begin stirring the popcorn right away until it’s all coated. That’s all! You may want to give it a few more stirs as it cools to break up any large chunks…but other than that, you’re done! This may just be the best caramel corn you’ve ever had. You can also bag it up once it cools, and give to friends…but good luck making it last that long. 🙂