Homemade Caramel Corn

One of my favorite memories from my childhood was movie nights with my family. I remember my mom would always make pans and pans (to my childish eyes) of homemade caramel corn, and I remember being sent into the kitchen midway through a movie to scoop more off the pans to refill the bowls we were eating from. That caramel corn was sooo good, the equal of any I've ever had from a store, and even though my mom didn't really make it after we moved to Alabama when I was 12, the memory of it lingered in the back of my mind for years.

Shortly before my mom died of breast cancer in 2014, I sat down with her one day and asked her for some of my favorite recipes from childhood that I had yet to get from her, and one of them was her caramel corn recipe. Even though I got the recipe in 2014, I forgot about it and never made it until last fall when I was working on a family cookbook and found the recipe again in one of my cookbooks. When I finally tried it, I couldn't believe how easy it was! And my family couldn't get enough of its taste! Now it's becoming a movie night tradition for my own kids, something to pass on from my childhood to theirs. Maybe it will become a family tradition for you, too!

When I say this recipe is incredibly easy, I'm not kidding! The caramel sauce comes together really quickly on the stove, and the ingredients are all things you probably already have in your cupboard. The most difficult part of the process is the time it takes to cook the caramel corn--one hour--but it really just requires a little planning ahead of time. I generally start the caramel corn before I start cooking supper, and it usually finishes while we're eating supper, perfect timing for dessert!

To make homemade caramel corn, you need two bags of microwave popcorn, brown sugar, a stick of butter, corn syrup, salt, vanilla and baking soda.

Cook the popcorn in the microwave and set it to the side. Meanwhile, melt the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, salt and vanilla in a medium saucepan on the stove until it's smooth and then bring it to a boil.

Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from the heat and stir in the baking soda. I'm not exactly sure what the baking soda does, but it seems to make the caramel corn more sticky.

Spread the cooked popcorn on two foil-lined cookie sheets and then divide the caramel sauce between the two pans. We've found that silicone spatulas work best for stirring the popcorn and caramel together, but don't expect them to mix together very well the first time, the caramel will be too thick and sticky. As the caramel cooks in the oven, it will thin and coat the popcorn much better.

Slide the pans into a 350 degree oven and set a timer for 15 minutes. Over the course of the next hour, you'll stir the corn a total of four times, every 15 minutes, until, by the time it's done, all the popcorn should be thoroughly coated with the caramel. I rotate the pans every time I stir them to ensure equal cooking on both pans.

Now all that's left is to enjoy your caramel corn with a good movie!