Perfectly shellacked in a rich and buttery caramel robe; this popcorn is anything but average.

An old-fashioned recipe from my maternal great-grandmother’s recipe book. It’s a pretty good standard recipe for Caramel Corn but upon further inspection I found that it could use a little bit of an update. I punched up the flavor by adding a bit more salt, some high quality vanilla and by using a good high fat content butter such as Kerrygold. These little changes brought this delicious confectionary wonder to the next level. It’s positively divine.

Even though I updated some of the ingredients to improve the recipe,  I also took it upon myself to have a little with it by adding some tasty mix-in options. Now the recipe definitely doesn’t need it but it gives you the option to make it more festive if you desire. Who wouldn’t love to make it look spook-tacular with some candy corn for your next Halloween party or even add some cinnamon to give it some Christmas cheer? The choice is yours. I'm merely just giving some friendly suggestions.

Caramel Corn

8 cups popped popcorn (½ cup unpopped)

¾ cups brown sugar

6 TBSP unsalted butter

3 TBSP light corn syrup

½ tsp kosher salt

¼ tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pop ½ cup of popcorn on the stove or pop one bag of popcorn in the microwave, put aside the popped kernels in a large mixing bowl.

Preheat the oven to 300°F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper coated with cooking spray.

In a medium sized pot, combine brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup; set to medium heat. Once it begins to boil, set a timer for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in salt, baking soda and vanilla extract. Pour over popcorn and coat. Put coated popcorn on the greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Mix and bake for another 10 minutes. Cool completely before serving or adding desired mix-ins. 

Fun mix-in ideas:

Salted nuts 

Candy Corn 

Spice Blends like Pumpkin Spice

Really the possibilities are endless, just have fun with it!

*Notes:

If you wish to add salted nuts you can also add them in before the baking process.

You can use any of your favorite popcorn for this recipe. I chose to go with Mushroom Kernel Popcorn for this recipe. The shape of the kernel really helps the caramel adhere in a nice even coating. But don’t fear if you have your standard Orville Redenbacher, that will work just fine.

While coating the popcorn, the popcorn will stick together and clump. Don’t worry during the baking process the caramel becomes crispy and the popcorn easily comes apart. While I let the popcorn cool on the baking sheet, I mixed them with a silicone spatula to break up the clumps so I’m left with nicely shellacked separate kernels. 

Make sure you cool the caramel corn completely before adding candy type mix-ins. If you don’t wait, the candy will surely melt into the warm caramel. Which in turn will cause a sticky mess and ruin the beautiful caramel shellac.