Basic recipe:

1 c. butter

2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. corn syrup

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

5 quarts popped popcorn

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place popped corn in a very large bowl.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.

Place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

I have found that popping the popcorn into one bowl and then transferring it to a larger bowl, scoop by scoop, will eliminate the old maids that are no fun to bite into.

 

 

I used one cup of sucanat and one cup of evaporated cane juice crystals for the sugar. For a darker caramel, you can use two cups of sucanat or for a lighter caramel, you can use two cups evap. cane juice crystals. I used a 3.5 quart Le Creuset round oven, but it didn’t need to be this large.

 

 

After adding the baking soda, the mixture fluffs up a bit and turns creamier.

 

 

 

 

It takes a bit of stirring to evenly coat the popcorn. Otherwise you wind up with a pocket or two of non-coated popcorn.

 

 

 

 

I lined two Pampered Chef stoneware 10×15 pans with unbleached parchment paper for easy cleanup.

I don’t stir the popcorn every 15 minutes. Rather, after 30 minutes I give it a good stir and then return it to the oven.

 

 

Voilá! I stir the popcorn as it cools, sampling as I go. Warm caramel corn is better than cold caramel corn:) Wish I could put the tantalizing smell on here somehow:)

Calories don’t count when you are sampling and stirring 🙂