When I was growing up my mom made caramel corn pretty often and we all loved it. It's so weird that I was a fat kid now that I think about it...
Anyway, her caramel corn recipe is perfect, unfortunately she was driving to my house when I decided to make some so I had to use a different recipe from my friend, which is really close to perfect, so it all worked out! I wanted to make it a little bit more gourmet so I added the peanuts and chocolate which put it over the top. I think next time I'll sprinkle some peanut butter M&M's in with the finished product to make it even more fun! Now I'm off to do cardio for 2 hours.
I highly recommend using candy quik, candy melts, or almond bark for the chocolate because it melts great and hardens up really fast. I took a picture so you know what to look for! If you don't care for that option, 1/2 c. of chocolate chips with a tsp. of vegetable oil would work just great also! I popped my own popcorn on the stove using this method. It is kind of a pain though, so if you have an air popper (I want one!) or just prefer to use microwave popcorn that works awesome. One tip I highly recommend, is to be very careful to remove all un-popped popcorn seeds or you could break a tooth on your caramel corn!
Double Chocolate Peanut Caramel Corn
recipe first posted on Cracked Up Kitchen
2 c. brown sugar, packed
1 c. butter (real butter only)
1/2 c. corn syrup
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla
16 c. popcorn
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. dry roasted peanuts
2 cubes chocolate almond bark or candy quik (or more, if you like it super chocolatey)
2 cubes vanilla almond bark or candy quik (or more, if you like it super chocolatey)
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Bring brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, cream of tartar and vanilla to a boil over medium heat and let boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Once the five minutes is up, remove from heat and add baking soda (it will bubble up) and stir well. Pour caramel over the popcorn and stir well. Pour caramel corn onto two cookie sheets, no need to grease them. Bake 20 minutes, noting which pan is on the bottom rack and which is on the top, remove from oven and stir with a spatula. Return the sheets to the oven, rotating the pans to the opposite (top/bottom) rack of the oven. Bake another 20 minutes, remove from the oven and sprinkle the peanuts on the popcorn, stir with a spatula and rotate the pans again. Bake 15 minutes, stirring and rotating pans, three more times, baking the popcorn a total of just under 1 1/2 hours. Remove pans from the oven and pour the popcorn onto wax paper or foil on the kitchen counter. Let the caramel corn cool for a few minutes. Then, heat the bark in a microwave safe bowl 20 seconds at a time until melted (directions for melting on package) and drizzle chocolate all over the popcorn. Let rest until completely cool and the chocolate is firm. Enjoy!
Looks wonderful, what temperature is the oven?
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