It's the early hours of 2nd January 2016, and I am watching Seinfeld. Jerry was eating some popcorn, and I had serious food envy.
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| Attempt 2: Finished article. Way too much syrup, but super yummy |
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| Attempt 1: Homemade Caramel |
I didn't want ordinary popcorn, so made an easy butterscotch caramel to pour over it, and baked it for that signature texture.
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| Popped |
Preparation time took around less than 15 minutes, plus another hour in the oven, and don't forget you can store your caramel sauce in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, and use it for many other things, so do not feel obliged to make 3 bags of caramel popcorn.
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| 1st attempt: Just before baking |
Unfortunately, I must have overcooked the caramel so I had an unpleasant burnt sugar taste that was also giving me an actual headache.
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| 2nd attempt: with salted peanuts |
I decided to stop playing games, and seeing as I had some heavy cream that needed using, I tried again with a salted butterscotch caramel recipe that I felt more confident making.
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| Attempt 2: Not such an amazing colour or clarity, but AMAZING taste! |
I made much more than needed and had to gestimate the proportions as it was dictated by the remaining cream I had, but now I'm getting into sterilising hats, I just put the extra in the jars I had for later use.
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| Repurposed Jars |
Butterscotch Caramel Popcorn
Time: 75 minutes preparation + 1 hour cooling
Yield: 2-3 large bowls
Storage: popcorn can be stored in an airtight container out of direct sunlight for up to 5 days,, caramel can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks
Ingredients
- 1/2-1 cup popcorn kernels/2-3 bags of plain* microwave popcorn
- Optional: 2 cup peanuts
- Optional: 1-1,5 tsp sea salt*
Butterscotch Caramel Sauce
- 75 g unsalted butter
- 50 g brown sugar
- 50 g white sugar
- 50g syrup
- 100 ml double/heavy cream
- 2 tsp sea salt
Method
- Put the oven on to 120 °C.
- Melt the butter, sugars, and syrup ingredients in a medium sized saucepan until simmering. This should take 3-5 minutes.
- Whilst step 2 is happening, pop your corn using your chosen method
- Take the saucepan off the heat, and add the cream and salt, and stir well.
- Return to the heat for 1 minute, constantly stirring.
- Place the popped popcorn in a large bowl, add the peanuts if you are using them, and pour the butterscotch sauce over everything in the bowl.
- Stir the mixture thoroughly to evenly coat the dry ingredients with the sauce.
- Spread the popcorn evenly on a lined baking sheet, sprinkle with 1-1,5 tsp salt if desired*, and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes
- When finished, place the baking tray in a safe place to cool completely.
- Break into bite-sized pieces, and store in an airtight container. Or snack immediately.
*If using a saltier variation of microwave popcorn, adjust the salt sprinkled accordingly.
