Cinnamon Almond Caramel Corn

Busy times here! I spent the past two weeks stitching fairy costumes for the high school play at my boys’ school. (You can check them out in a future post…) During that time I was pondering what to create for the Improv Cooking Challenge deadline which was fast approaching. The challenge ingredients are sugar and cinnamon.

I decided to make something gluten free so I could enjoy it along with the family. What I really wanted was cinnamon rolls, but I decided to go with cinnamon caramel corn.

My oldest left late last night for a road trip with church college friends. I decided to make a double batch of the corn so he could take some to share. I intended to make it with pecans; but when I saw at Sprouts Market they were double the price of slivered almonds I quickly changed my mind!I decided not to toast the almonds because they would be baked with the caramelizing corn, and I didn’t want them to be too dark. So I tossed them into my waiting pans & covered them with the popped corn.So, you know how it is making caramel. Everything just seems to happen all at once so you can’t get real good pictures of the process. (Although, because I had to answer a few texts, I’m pretty sure a picture or two ended up on facebook & Instagram… )I turned the pans out onto freezer paper to cool.I filled a gallon zip-lock for the road trip & dumped the rest back into my big popcorn bowl.I did also manage to pack 3 sandwich-size bags full of caramel corn for my husband and younger sons’ lunches. I saw this on facebook:My favorite parts of this batch would be the kernels that have a bunch of almonds stuck to them…