Caramel Corn

As a fall treat, I made some caramel corn today (because it was necessary with all of the candy, right?).  I loved this stuff as a kid, and I thought I'd give a recipe I found in The Joy of Cooking a try.

This particular recipe was fairly simple calling for 6 cups of popped popcorn, 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, 1 and 1/2 cups of light brown sugar, and 6 tablespoons of water.  My mom's was always more complex and included several other ingredients, including corn syrup and baking soda.  Looking at both recipes, the one from Joy seems to have less fat than the one my mom always made.  It does show, though, that the extras and things that may not be so healthy will nearly always taste better.

You pop the popcorn and set it aside.  Then, you melt the butter in a saucepan and add in the brown sugar and water, mixing on a low heat.  Once it is mixed, you turn the heat to medium and bring it to a boil.  Once it's there, use a candy thermometer to cook it until it reaches the soft ball stage (for this recipe, it should be approximately 230-240 degrees).  After that, just pour it over the popped corn and mix.  The candy turned out to be a sugary coating, which was interesting.  Since there are six people in the house, I made two batches.  In the second batch, I actually used 8 cups of popped popcorn instead of 6.  I preferred this because the popcorn did not have quite as thick of a coating as the first batch did.

I do prefer my mom's recipe.  It was crisp and tasted delicious.  This one is good, but the coating is sugary, not crispy.  It probably isn't as bad for you as my mom's recipe, but I am someone who is of the opinion that treats aren't meant to be good for you.  I can recommend giving it a try, if you like the sugary texture because it does taste all right.  Be aware that it is very sweet (which may be obvious, but I thought I would give warning just the same).