Almost Famous Caramel Corn Recipes

CLASSIC CARAMEL CORN

Steps:

• Spray large shallow roasting pan with cooking spray. Add popcorn and place in preheated 250 degrees F oven while preparing caramel.
• Mix brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and salt in a heavy 2-quart saucepan. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil over medium heat.
• Boil 5 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat. Stir in baking soda and vanilla; mix well.
• Pour syrup over warm popcorn, stirring to coat evenly.
• Bake for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven and spread on foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
• Cool; break apart. Store in tightly covered container.

"ALMOST FAMOUS" CORN PUDDING

Steps:

• Prepare a grill for indirect heat. If using a charcoal grill, build the hot coals on one side only. If using a gas grill, heat one side only to medium-high heat.
• Whisk together the creamed corn, cornbread mix, eggs, corn kernels, sour cream and scallions in a large bowl. Melt the butter and mascarpone in a small saucepot over low heat, stirring occasionally. (Be careful not to simmer or the mixture will separate.) Pour the melted butter and mascarpone into the large bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Season with salt and pepper and mix well to combine.
• Butter a large Dutch oven and pour the mixture in. Place over indirect heat, cover the grill and bake at 325 to 375 degrees F until the mixture is set and golden brown on top, about 1 hour. Take off the grill and serve!
• (Alternatively, you can bake the corn pudding in a 350 degrees F oven for 1 hour.)

BEST CARAMEL CORN

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees
• Lightly butter 2 large cookie sheets
• Pop the popcorn in oil (I use light olive oil) and pour in a very large mixing bowl.
• Add the nuts to the popcorn and mix.
• In a tall 5 or 6 quart saucepan over medium heat, melt butter.
• Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt.
• Bring to a boil - stirring constantly.
• Boil for 4 minutes without stirring. The remove from heat and add the soda and vanilla. When you add the soda and vanilla it bubbles up a bit so be very careful not to get burned. Pour the caramel mixture slowly all over the popcorn - mixing it well to cover all of the popcorn and nuts.
• Lay the caramel coated popcorn/nuts mixture on the 2 large cookie sheets.
• Bake for 1 hour - turning over every 15 minutes. The caramel sauce melts a bit in the oven so turning the popcorn helps to coat each piece and makes sure that it bakes evenly.
• Remove from oven and cool completely before breaking into pieces.
• The popcorn will still be a little wet when you remove it from the oven. It will harden and become crunchy as it cools.

ALMOST-FAMOUS CARAMEL CORN

Steps:

• Put the vegetable oil and a few test popcorn kernels in a large pot. Heat over medium-high heat until the kernels pop, then carefully add the remaining kernels in a single layer. Cover and cook, shaking the pot, until there are several seconds between pops. Transfer the popcorn to a bowl. Lightly oil a baking sheet.
• Wipe out the pot, then add the sugar, corn syrup, molasses, peanut oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt and the peanuts. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, until a candy thermometer registers 290 degrees F, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the popcorn until coated. Transfer the caramel corn to the prepared baking sheet and let cool, then break into small pieces.