Harvest 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.

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.

HARVEST CARAMEL CORN

Steps:

• You will need 10 cups of popcorn. We pop our popcorn on the stove (you can find our directions on How to Make Perfect Popcorn here) but you can use air-popped or microwave.
• After the popcorn is popped, make sure to remove all of the un-popped kernels. You don't want to bite down on one of those!
• Once you have made the popcorn, salt it liberally. It is so nice to taste the salty popcorn with the sweet marshmallow coating. Not quite like Kettle Corn but close.
• Melt 1 cup of butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.
• Add 1 cup of light brown sugar.
• Stir until thoroughly mixed with the melted butter.
• Stirring continuously, bring the butter and sugar mixture up to a low boil. When it reaches a boil allow it to cook for 4 minutes without stirring.
• After boiling for 4 minutes, add the vanilla and stir for one more minute.
• Take the caramel mixture off the heat and immediately add the baking soda.
• Stir the mixture. This will cause the caramel to change colors and foam up a bit. This is the chemical reaction that you want. The bubbling effect of the baking soda will aerate the caramel and make it lighter and smoother and therefore easier to coat the popcorn.
• Slowly pour about a third of the caramel mixture over the salted popcorn.
• Gently fold the mixture in with the popcorn. Continue to add the caramel mixture a bit at a time, stirring between each addition.
• The popcorn should be completely covered in the warm caramel corn mixture.
• Here is the candy that we added to our Harvest Caramel Corn. We added Rolo candy, Pretzel M&M's (Brown, Yellow, Red, and Orange), and Regular sized M&M's (Brown, Yellow, Red, and Orange).
• Pour the popcorn out onto a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil or a Silpat liner.
• Let the popcorn cool and then sprinkle with your candy mix-ins. Now your super delicious Harvest Caramel Corn is ready to serve!

HARVEST CARAMEL CORN

Steps:

• Dissolve the sugar, margarine, corn syrup and salt until firm ball stage.
• Remove from heat and add spices and baking soda.
• Pour over popcorn, stirring well.
• Spread evenly on baking sheet and bake at 250ºF 45-50 minutes stirring every 15 minutes until done.
• Cool.
• (Be careful-burns easily).

ILLINOIS CARAMEL CORN

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place popcorn and nuts in a large bowl. Melt butter in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir in sugar, corn syrup, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Raise heat to high; bring to a boil without stirring. Cook until mixture reaches 248 degrees on a candy thermometer, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in baking soda.
• Add caramel to popcorn, and stir to coat. Transfer mixture to a rimmed baking sheet.
• Bake for 45 minutes, stirring twice. Remove from oven, and immediately sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Let cool. Break into clusters.

SPICED CARAMEL CORN

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spread nuts on a small rimmed baking sheet, and bake until fragrant and beginning to brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven, and let stand until cool. Coarsely chop; set aside.
• Line a baking sheet with a Silpat (a French nonstick baking mat); set aside. In a medium stockpot, heat oil over high heat. Add popcorn, and cover. Once the corn begins to pop, shake the pan constantly. When the corn has finished popping, remove from the heat, uncover; set aside.
• In a large deep pot, at least 12 inches wide, stir together water, sugar, and corn syrup. Add vanilla pod and seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat without stirring. Using a pastry brush dipped in water, brush down the sides of the pan to remove any undissolved sugar granules. Reduce heat to medium, and cook, tilting and swirling the pan, until the mixture just begins to smoke and is a deep caramel color, 4 to 5 minutes more.
• Stir in the popcorn and nuts. Cook, stirring, while moving the pot on and off the heat to prevent the caramel from burning, until the popcorn is completely coated and the mixture is deep mahogany in color. Pour onto prepared baking sheet, and spread in an even layer. Let cool. Remove and discard vanilla bean. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

GOURMET CARAMEL CORN

Steps:

• Place popped corn and nuts in a very large container.
• In a saucepan combine sugars, margarine, salt, and corn syrup. Bring to a boil and boil on medium heat for five minutes, stirring occasionally, be careful not to burn. Remove from heat and stir in flavorings. Add baking soda. Stir quickly. Pour over popcorn and nuts and mix well, coating the popcorn.
• Spread popcorn in large flat pans such as jelly roll pans. Bake in a 250 degree oven for one hour. Stir every 15 minutes. Remove from oven after one hour and stir as mixture cools, breaking up any large clumps of popcorn.

CARAMEL CORN II

Steps:

• Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to a 4 quart saucepan, and heat over high heat. When oil is hot, add 1/2 cup of popping corn. Keep pan moving constantly. When corn stops popping, remove from heat. Repeat until all corn has been popped. Place popped corn into a buttered bowl.
• In a 3 quart saucepan, combine sugar, salt, butter, dark corn syrup, and water. Stir until sugar dissolves. Stir in vinegar. Boil sugar mixture to hard ball stage, 248 degrees F (118 degrees C). Remove caramel from heat. Stir in soda. Beat to thoroughly dissolve the soda.
• Pour hot caramel over popcorn, and quickly stir into popcorn; work quickly for the caramel sets up fast. Spread out on wax paper to cool. Store in a tightly covered container.

CARAMEL CORN

Steps:

• Pop popcorn according to package directions.
• Have two bowls ready.
• Pour popcorn in one bowl.
• Gently Shake the bowl to get the seeds to the bottom of the bowl.
• Remove popcorn slowly into the second bowl leaving seeds in the 1st bowl.
• Toss seeds. Repeat with the second and third bag.
• Prepare 2 baking sheets with a baking mat or parchment paper.
• Preheat oven to 250*F
• In a pot, add butter and cook over medium heat until melted.
• Add brown sugar, corn syrup and salt.
• Bring to a boil and cook for an additional 4 minutes, stirring regularly so caramel doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan.
• After 4 minutes, turn off the heat and remove the pan from heat.
• Add vanilla extract and be prepared for the mixture to spit at you. Stir to incorporate.
• Add baking soda and stir. Mixture will become fluffy and increase in volume.
• Pour caramel mixture over your prepared popcorn.
• Stir well, careful not to touch the caramel mixture to your skin or it will burn you.
• Spread caramel corn on baking sheets, dividing mixture between the two sheets.
• Evenly space the racks in your oven so you can get both in there at the same time, one on top and one on bottom.
• Bake for 15 minutes.
• Remove caramel corn, and stir. Place back in oven on the opposite oven shelf.
• Repeat 15 minute baking and stirring intervals until caramel corn has been baked 2 times total.
• Remove from the oven, stir and let cool.
• I like to stir again after caramel corn has been out of the oven for 5 minutes to prevent clumping.
• Serve once cool.