Mom's Legendary Caramel Corn
My parents have been in town all this week. That's bad for quiet blogging time, but good for eating well. This trip they brought with them my mom's legendary recipe for caramel corn.
The correct popcorn is key. Flavorings are out, and microwaved popcorn doesn't seem to hold the caramel in the same way. The best results come from buying a bag of popcorn kernels and popping them in an honest-to-goodness popcorn popper. I've used an air popper with great results (and it can do double duty as a coffee roaster.)
Caramel Corn
Serves: a small party (about 6 quarts worth)
Special equipment: a popcorn popper
- 1 ¼ c. unpopped popcorn kernels, makes ~6 qts cooked
- 1 c. butter
- 2 c. brown sugar
- ½ c. corn syrup (light or dark)
- 1 t. salt
- ½ t. baking soda
- 1 t. vanilla
Cook up your popcorn in a pan or air popper. Once it's done popping, transfer the cooked popcorn to a pan and keep it warm in a 300 degree oven.
Meanwhile, melt margarine in a saucepan. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil stirring constantly then boil without stirring for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in ½ t. baking soda and 1 t. vanilla. Pour over popped corn mixing well. Turn into 2 large shallow baking pans. Bake in 250 oven for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool. Store in an airtight container.
thanks for sharing this, it looked so ono in my rss reader!!
It looks even more ono on your tabletop!
Sounds like there’s been some good eating in your home lately! Congrats on getting hold of your mom’s legendary caramel corn recipe, and many thanks for sharing it. I don’t have a popcorn popper, but this gives me a good excuse to go out and get one! Especially if my popcorn ends of looking as delicious as in your photo…
It was lack of a popcorn popper that prevented me from making this recipe long ago. Turns out they're not that expensive,
I love this stuff - perhaps too much - and I'm always on the lookout for new recipes. This looks so good!
Madam Chow, glad you like it!
Hi Alan -- thanks for posting this! I adore home made caramel popcorn. I look forward to giving this a shot. I posted a sort of recipe on my blog http://n8njenn.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/food/ ; it looks fairly similar. I mention this because I think it's always important to point out that -- hot butter & sugar can hurt! :) haha I found out the hard way, unfortunately, the night before Nate "popped the question." (photo on blog)
Anyway, if you or your mom have any tips for how to clean the pot & utensils after making this, I'm all ears. If you try too soon, it's too hot. If you wait too long, it hardens. I haven't found the perfect balance yet. Ciao!
Wow! the picture looks amazing..sounds superb....i'm gonna try it.
Jenn, the key to cleaning the pot and utensils is laziness! Just set them to soak overnight and the stubborn caramel will all dissolve away. As a bonus, you can get right down to sampling your fresh caramel corn rather than wrangling dishes. Which would you rather be doing anyway?
Dave, if you're able, please let me know how it works out for you. Thanks for stopping by!
My mom loves making caramel corn. I'll have to give her this recipe. Thanks for posting!
MDR, uh oh, I don't want to get in a recipe throwdown with a mom. I hope she likes it.