Caramel corn, it's easy to make and delicious! It's that time of the year when we get hungry for snacks. Well, we get hungry for snacks all the time, but during the holiday season we tend to dig into cookbooks to try new things, or make the old tried and true recipes.
Sometimes finding the just right recipes means getting into old family recipes. My mother has been gone for almost 20 years now. She was a great cook and her recipes live on in her children and grandchildren.
One of our favorites that she would make is caramel corn. She called it poppy cock, but it was caramel corn or Cracker Jacks to some. Here's her recipe.
Recipe
Caramel Corn
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter (two sticks)
1/2 cup White Karo (corn syrup)
One tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda (not baking powder, there is a difference)
1 cup peanuts or pecans
7 1/2 quarts popped corn
Directions: Mix brown sugar, butter, salt and corn syrup, bring to a boil and boil for five minutes. Remove from heat and beat baking soda in rapidly. Stir in nuts. Place popped corn in large pan and pour mixture over corn, mix well. Bake one hour at 200 degrees, stir every 15 minutes. Allow to cool before storing.
Hints
It takes a large pan for the popcorn. Use a pan big to stir easily. A metal dishpan is perfect. Now, I realize most of the readers won't have a metal dishpan, but "in my time" as they say, everyone had a metal dishpan.
Update: Facebook Friend Susan Brantley had a great idea.....use large aluminum roasting pan to hold the caramel corn. Thank you Susan!
As long as you have a pan or more than one big enough to stir the caramel corn in, you can always spread it out on a couple of cookie sheets for the oven part. Cookie sheets with sides work better since you have to stir a little every 15 minutes.
You could use more than 1 cup of nuts. Two cups isn't too much. Mix peanuts and pecans together for this caramel corn. You know there is always someone in the family that will pick out the nuts and leave the rest!
Store in airtight container, or just large zip lock bags. Don't worry about how long it will keep, it won't last long!
Enjoy!
On my next batch of caramel corn, I'm going to experiment with Swerve Brown Sugar. I've been using it lately on some foods and it really looks and taste good. It has the consistency of regular brown sugar. Making a batch of caramel corn with it will put it to the real test. We'll see how it works!
Do you have favorite family recipes for the holidays? Let us hear from you. We're always looking for those great recipes that are handed down through the years.
Trendy Tree is a crafting supply, seasonal decor business and this post doesn't fit in with that scenario, but sometimes you just have to veer off subject! My mother swore by the 1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook. Here's a recipe for gingerbread from the 1950's:
1950 Betty Crocker Gingerbread Recipe
