We have had a pretty busy weekend in our house. On Saturday my daughter and I participated in Wreaths Across America here on Fort Bragg.
This experience brought up a slew of questions as well as memories for my daughter of the only time she has ever been in a cemetery, after my grandmother’s death. This led into conversations about my grandma and all of our happy memories. One those memories was Caramel Corn. Every year during the holidays a bag of this was sure to pop up and a few years back when we were living in New Jersey my grandma was able to spend the holidays with us. On her list of things to make with her great-grandkids while she was visiting was caramel corn. My kid’s loved it and the tradition of Caramel Corn lives on in my family with us making her yummy recipe.
My grandma’s recipe is pretty easy to make. In fact you do not even need the oven for it. The recipe is primarily made on the stove top and microwave. The recipe starts with making popcorn. While it is popping you can make the caramel sauce. The caramel sauce is made on the stove and takes less than 15 minutes to make. You do not need anything special for it other than a heavy bottomed saucepan. No thermometer, just bring to a boil on medium for 5 minutes and bam it’s done! Then all you do is pour the caramel over the popcorn and coat well and microwave the popcorn. Let it cool and then try not to eat it all. My family is addicted to it. Granted there are 6 of us but I can make up a bowl and it will be gone in a day! It really is good stuff! I am sure your family will love it as much as mine!
Check out my 12 Days of Homemade Christmas for other great ideas!
- 4 Quarts Popped, Popcorn
- 1 Cup Peanuts
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar
- ¼ cup and 1 teaspoon Corn Syrup
- ½ Cup Butter or Margarine
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
- In a large bowl combine popped popcorn and peanuts.
- In a heavy saucepan combine brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and salt and cook on medium until it boils. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda.
- Pour caramel mix over popcorn, mixing to coat well.
- Cook in Microwave on high for 1.5 minutes then stir well, then cook on high 1 minute and then stir, next cook on high 45 seconds and then stir. Finally cook on high for 35 seconds Stir and then spread out and cool on wax or parchment paper.