Caramel Corn - Amateur Camper - Camping Adventures for the Family

We are getting excited for our next camping adventure next weekend. Hopefully this mild Florida weather will continue with sunny days and cool evenings. Perfect weather for camping.

With the Super Bowl tomorrow and coming up with an easy snack to munch on while camping I found my sister’s Caramel Corn Recipe in the bicentennial cookbook my hometown publish a few years ago. I have never made it before but have ate a lot of it. It was an easy recipe to follow and taste so much better than store bought caramel popcorn. I will be making it again, probably next weekend for the campout.

I mention my sister a lot on this blog. Before you think I have one amazing sister that can do anything under the sun, note that I have 6 amazing sisters. So when I say “my sister” you never know which one you are going to get.

Paula’s Caramel Corn

7 1/2 quarts popped corn
2 Cups brown sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Cup butter
1/2 Cup light corn syrup
1 Teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. In a saucepan, heat butter, sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Stir occasionally. When the mixture comes to a full boil, cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Pour caramel mixture over popcorn and mix until evenly coated. Bake for 1 hour in a large greased roasting pan, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool on wax paper and store in an airtight container.

I do not have nutritional information on this recipes. If you really need it, there are apps that allow you to calculate nutritional information by entering a recipe. I have used My Fitness Pal to do this before. It’s really easy to use, but time consuming.

Ingredients

The ingredients are pretty basic. I had everything on hand except for the Karo Corn Syrup. That I had to buy just for this recipe.

Popcorn

The popcorn is obviously the most important thing about this recipe. I am very particular about my popcorn. I use Orville Redenbacher’s Popcorn, but any brand will do. Don’t use microwave popcorn in this recipe. If you want the best popcorn, in my opinion, use a Whirly Pop to make it. Air popped corn would work too.

You will need to make popcorn twice in this pan to get 7 1/2 quarts of popcorn. The Whirly Pop makes about 6 quarts, so you will have extra. Do not overfill the Whirly Pop with seeds trying to get 7 quarts in one popping. Also note, it keeps popping even when you remove it from the heat.

Pour the popped corn into a container and set aside.

Caramel

Next thing you will need is a large saucepan to make the caramel. Melt the butter. Add the brown sugar, salt, and light corn syrup into the saucepan. Keep stirring this mixture.

It doesn’t take long to boil at a medium heat level. Let it boil for 5 more minutes. Keep stirring it.

After 5 minutes take it off the heat and add the baking soda.

Pour and Mix Well

After stirring the baking soda into the caramel mixture, pour it over your popped corn and mix well. Make sure to coat the popcorn evenly with the caramel mixture.