***I know it’s not Tuesday, but my printer just kicked it. Now the post I was planning on for today had to be swapped with the one for tomorrow. No big deal, but I just seem to be a magnet for this kinda stuff lately!***
Over the weekend we did a bit of experimenting with a hot air popcorn popper. But, after you have a garland long enough to wrap around the whole house, what do you do with the extra popcorn? Why not make caramel corn?
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This is the crispy coated kind that melts on your tongue! |
I won’t lie. I was a little intimidated by the whole process and didn’t really expect it to turn out very well. (Lets just say homemade caramel and I have a track record, and it isn’t a very good one ; ) Happily, everything turned out great, and I will also probably be gaining 5 pounds just from the amount of corn I ate this weekend!
I used this recipe, and as long as you follow the directions you shouldn’t have any problem.
A few suggestions…
– 5 quarts of popped corn is roughly 2/3 cup of un-popped kernels. 1½ gallon ziploc bags when finished.
– Go ahead and half the butter if you want to be more “healthy”. I used 3/4 cup and things went fine.
– Use a large roasting pan lined with foil for super easy mixing and clean up.
– Keep the popped corn warm in the oven while you make the caramel. It will make mixing much easier!
– Don’t freak out when the baking soda makes the caramel foam.
– You only need 45 min. in the oven.
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Just added the baking soda and immediately ran to check that I had used baking soda and not baking powder. Major dork moment right there! |
This is definitely a much better use of the popcorn than a garland, and I don’t know many people who wouldn’t enjoy it as a gift either. Good thing I still have a bag and a half worth of kernels to pop!
P.S. For those of you who are lucky enough to have had Fisher’s popcorn from the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD this is a pretty good substitute when you just can’t make it to the beach!
Yum, yum, yum! Thanks so much for sharing! I just read your baker's twine tute. Genius! I am definitely trying that one. I have tons of crepe paper lying around!
~Nat
P.S. Enter our giveaway over at http://crafting-cousins.blogspot.com