Caramel Corn

They say necessity is the mother of invention. Well I wanted to share that desperation is the motivator of creativity. In our home Monday night is Family Home Evening. Everyone has a job to do such as, prayer, song, lesson, activity, desert, etc. Tonight Jason had activity and Nathan had desert. I didn't remind either of them of this until about 5:30 tonight.

They decided to combine efforts and make something for desert as the activity. Sounds good, right? Well chocolate chip cookies was vetoed as were peanut butter and oatmeal cookies. So then, what to make quickly? I headed to the computer and found this recipe.


• 12 cups popped popcorn (about 1/2 cup kernels)
• 1 cup peanuts (optional)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees. Place popcorn and nuts (if using) in a large bowl, set aside. Add corn syrup and brown sugar to a small bowl. Chop butter into small chunks and add to bowl with corn syrup and sugar. Microwave for 30 seconds and then stir. Microwave for 2 more minutes and stir. Return to microwave for another 2 minutes. Stir to combine. The mixture should be hot and bubbly. Add in vanilla, baking soda, and cinnamon (if using). The mixture will get a bit foamy. Stir and then pour over the large bowl of popcorn. Mix well to coat popcorn. If you want your caramel corn very chewy, go ahead and eat it now. Otherwise, pour caramel corn onto a foil or parchment paper lined baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for 5 minutes, stir and taste. Keep baking and stirring every 5 minutes (up to 20 minutes of baking) until you get it as crunchy as you want. It will harden up a bit as it cools. Break apart and devour!

Now the miracle of this activity is 1) I had all the ingredients in the cupboard (honestly we had to substitute dark corn syrup for light but that's not a biggie) and 2) With our popcorn craze going on at our house, everyone loved it. It was a great recipe and thought I'd share with any interested parties. Happy Family Home Evening treats to all!