Caramel Popcorn

There are two kinds of caramel popcorn. There’s the kind that my Grandma Bauer used to give me when I was a kid: gooey balls of caramel with some popcorn stuck in it. It’s good, but I like the other kind better: the kind that is crunchy with the perfect amount of stickiness to coat. This is it. You won’t stop eating it. It was perfect for our Halloween Movie Marathon this last weekend. I would never have made it through Eraserhead without it.

Caramel Popcorn

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup lite corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 10 cups popped popcorn 

Directions:

1. Place popcorn in a very large bowl and put in a warm oven (lowest oven temp).
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla.
4. Remove popcorn from oven and preheat oven to 250 degrees.
5. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
6. Place in a large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven for 30 min. stirring at the 15 min point.
7. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.