'How do you do that' caramel popcorn.

Ever since I was a kid I have wondered about certain foods...

 Back then it was things like how they get the icing inside the Twinkies, or the fortune in a fortune cookie. How do they keep melted chocolate melted, what exactly is that gooey stuff, how did powdered soup become powder and how the hell do you bake an ice cream cake with out it melting.

More recently the questions have been more along the lines of how did he make that fake caviar, how is the centre of that liquid, what is gellan gum, how do you make a foam stay foamy, and why is that so delicious. 

Some of these questions have since been answered... Some are still a mystery. Another one of those questions from when I was young, and until now actually (although now it's more of a question of whether they do it before of after cooking the popcorn) is how do they get the caramel on caramel popcorn? I have the googling machine at my finger tips but have never tried finding out until now. Turns out it's really easy, and dare I say mine tasted better than diddle daddles'.

Delicious Home-Made Caramel Popcorn

So I thought I would try doing a step by step on how to make this... If you don't feel like all the reading just click here to get the recipe, but either way you need to make this next movie night, or when you have guests over. It is to quote the younger generation "TOTES AMAZEBALLS"!

1. Buy popcorn- everything else should be in you pantry/fridge. You can make your own, but I am lazy and I love microwave popcorn. I bought the salted one because it's my favourite and salted caramel is the bomb!

2. Place popcorn in a bowl.In my case I place the popcorn in my Le Creuset bowl so you would think I'm cool. True story. Even if it is pretty much the only Le Creuset thing I own.

3. Place 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 a cup of water in a saucepan, and stir until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.

 

 4. Once the sugar has dissolved bring the mixture to a boil, and cook until it is a nice medium caramel colour, or soft ball if you have a sugar thermometer. 

5. While the caramel is cooking line a roasting tray with tin foil, and spray it well with spray and cook.

 6. Try not to get distracted by the other things in your kitchen as once the syrup starts caramelising it will go quickly.

 

7. Once the caramel is ready pour it over the popcorn and stir it well, you are trying to coat all of it in caramel.

 8. Now pour the popcorn into the prepared roasting dish, and spreading out and separate the corns. Be careful when doing this, the popcorn is still very hot. Allow the caramel popcorn to cool.

9. Make sure you don't put the pot back onto the stove plate which is still hot like I did. It's not very clever and burnt caramel is so difficult to clean.

10. Store the popcorn in a airtight container or serve immediately (ours didn't last long at all).

YUM!

Caramel Popcorn = 1 x HAPPY Josh

 11. This makes a really cool little gift. All you need is a good way to package/present it. My very clever friend made these awesome origami boxes.

Packaged prettily this make a great little gift.

 So there you have it my first little step by step for you! Hope this makes the cooking easier, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please feel free to leave a comment and tell my your thoughts, especially if you've tried any of my recipes. I would love to hear what you think- good or bad :)

Happy Messing.