The girls and I recently went out to celebrate our dear friend Sherie’s birthday with dinner and a concert at Yoshi’s in San Francisco. Â Since I’m always looking for an excuse to bring people food, I thought it would be fun to make a special treat for everyone to nibble on during the show.
Caramel popcorn sounded perfect! Â Fun, easy, and by adding some peanuts, reminiscent of everyone’s childhood favorite; Cracker Jacks.
This is by far the best recipe I have come across for caramel corn and, shockingly enough, it’s from a page I tore out of an old Cooking Light magazine. Â I just added peanuts!
Caramel Popcorn
Recipe Source: Cooking Light Magazine
Cooking spray
1 cup  dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup butter
1 Â tbsp light molasses
1 1/2 tsp  vanilla extract
1/2 tsp  baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 cups popcorn (popped without salt or fat)
1. Â Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. Â Spray large rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray.
3. Â In medium saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, butter and molasses and bring to boil over medium heat. Â Cook for 5 minutes, stirring once. Â Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, baking soda and salt.
4. Â Place popcorn in a large bowl and pour caramel mixture over top and stir well until all popcorn is evenly coated. Â Pour coated popcorn onto greased baking pan and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
5. Â Remove from oven and let cool 15 minutes before breaking up into pieces. Â Can be stored in an air-tight container for up to 1 week.
*Note: Â I love peanuts so I always add a cup or two of them to the popcorn before I pour the caramel over.
