Cashana's Musings on Life: Creative Cooking...Caramel Corn

Well as I type this Halloween is over and it is time to step up my game for Thanksgiving. I do not have any horror stories about Halloween, because growing up we didn't participate in trick or treating. I can only remember one time actually going door to door. And even then my mama used stuff around the house for our costumes. When I moved here from Florida, we didn't do the hand out candy thing either. So you don't see me getting excited about the holiday but I love to see others dress up and enjoy the day, just don't come to my house for candy. I don't buy it and right now if any child from my neighborhood comes to my door, I am liable to call the cops, because these little hellions may be part of the gang of folks breaking into homes in my neighborhood. Last count was 4 homes. Could be more.

Just because I do not really celebrate the holiday doesn't mean I don't like the treats you get to indulge in during this time. I like popcorn, don't love it, but will eat it to stave off hunger pains sometimes. I love caramel corn. Loves it. So I decided to make my own, but I didn't want to have to buy a whole lot of ingredients and I wanted to keep it as healthy as caramel corn can get, but still make it decadent.

I got this recipe from Homestead Roots Blogspot.

Ingredients:

1 pound of popcorn (I used 3 small bags of Orville Redenbacher's light butter microwaveable)
1 cup of brown sugar
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
2 crushed Heath candy bars

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Pop your popcorn and place in a large bowl and set aside.

Fresh popped popcorn

In a saucepan bring to a boil the butter, sugar and water. Boil for about 5 minutes or until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove from stove and add your baking soda and vanilla extract and stir quickly.

Pour mixture over your popcorn and coat your kernels. I actually used my parchment lined cookie sheet to mix it up, I am sure I had more than a pound of popcorn, but it worked for me so it wouldn't be too sweet. Once coated, place your pan in the oven for 45 minutes and stir every 10 or so minutes. 5 minutes before removing from oven, take your crushed up Heath bars (next time I will do them in the processor) and spread over the top of the popcorn and finish the cooking in the oven. Take the decadent popcorn out of the oven and allow to cool. Then dig in.

Caramel corn

Verdict: This was a great snack and a cup is quite filling. I liked this recipe because it was simple, but I was able to control the sugar content and not have it overly sweet. The popcorn is amazing and it is worth the extra effort. When I have a taste for something sweet, this is a good alternative to that slice of cake. I did tweak this recipe because I felt the salt content was a bit too much for my taste and I didn't use any nuts. But you can do what you like, just try to make some good choices where your cup of popcorn isn't the calorie content and sugar content of a whole meal. Enjoy!