For the kids

Drew and Riley spent the night with us on Saturday and for a snack and then dessert we decided to make caramel corn!  First we popped about 6 quarts of popcorn, divided it and buttered half to eat as an appetizer to dinner. The caramel corn part took over an hour to make so we decided that it would be dessert (along with ice cream of course!).

Here's what we did:

3 qts. popped popcorn
1 cup cashews (use other nuts if you choose)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup (you can use dark also)
1 stick butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. baking soda


Preheat the oven to 250F. Spray a shallow roasting pan with cooking spray and combine the popcorn and nuts in the pan.  Place the pan in the oven while making the syrup.


Combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and salt in a sauce pan. Stirring constantly over medium heat, bring mixture to a boil and then boil for 5 minutes without stirring. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and baking soda.
Pour the syrup over the warm popcorn and mix thoroughly to coat. Bake at 250F for about and hour, stirring now and then. Cool and the break apart.


With impeccably clean hands Drew and Riley did a magnificent job of breaking up the popcorn!!