peanut dipped caramel apple popcorn

Labor Day Weekend tradition the past few years has been camping with our #framily for a few days. I love planning meals I can cook in the cast iron over the campfire -- but sometimes you need a treat after dinner (& s’mores aren’t gluten free… )
Soooooooout came my new the popcorn-maker-I-wanted-so-my-mom-bought-it-for-my-husband’s-birthday
I tossed a cup of peanuts into my biggest lasagna pan
added a cup of freeze-dried sliced apples (that I chopped into smaller pieces)
then I piled the popcorn on top (making sure not to invite include any of the “old maids”) Preheat oven to 250°.
Time for my caramel sauce:Into a saucepan goes 1/2 c. salted butter, with 1/2 c. yogurt (full fat is best!) 1/2 c. light corn syrup, 2 c. brown sugar and 1 t. salt (or to taste -- depending how salty the peanuts are…)Heat until the mixture boils for 5 minutes.Remove from the heat and carefully stir in 1 t. vanilla and 1 t. baking soda.
Pour over waiting corn/peanut/apple mixture and stir gently. Bake for 15 minutes then gently stir. Return to the oven for another 15 minutes and stir again. Place pan back in over to bake 15 more minutes. Stir gently for the last time and return pan to oven for the last 15 minutes.

When it’s time is up, turn that incredible corn out onto waiting parchment (actually, this time I used freezer-) paper and allow to cool

ifyoucanwaitthatlong…

Cinnamon Coconut Caramel Corn

Soooooooooo, I’m typing this post with sticky fingers. Seriously! #icannotstopeatingthisstuff I made a “warm-up batch” for practice yesterday, using butter & brown sugar. I even wrote a blog about it and posted it here. But this morning I decided to #kickitupanotch and improve upon my recipe.This month’s Improv Challenge ingredients decreed by Kristen were cinnamon & sugar. I can’t wait to see what all the other participants did! (Check out their links at the end of my post…)
I elected to go with air-popped instead of kettle-popped corn. I also decided to use the jug of Orville Redenbacher kernels that was in my pantry.
I popped the two batches of corn into a giant bowl then shook it to settle the “old maids” down to the bottom. (there weren’t but a few…)I spread the coconut out in my lasagna pan. I gently placed the popcorn on top of that to await its warm caramel bath. I preheated the oven to 250°.I readied my cinnamon, salt & baking soda. (Once the sugar syrup reaches temperature, there’s no time for measuring ingredients…)In a large saucepan I stirred together my wonderful coconut oil, the sugar, sour cream and corn syrup. (If you want to make this vegan, replace the sour cream with coconut milk or cream. The sugar won’t dissolve in the oil don’t ask me how I know.)I cooked it over medium heat until my candy thermometer said 235°,then I removed it from the heat and carefully stirred in the cinnamon, salt & soda.
I poured it and gently spread it over the popcorn and coconut waiting in the pan.Into the oven it went for 15 minutes. Then the mixture was stirred (careful not to break the corn) and returned to the oven. I repeated this 3 more times for an hour.
Finally I dumped it all out onto a freezer paper-covered cutting board.I tried to let it cool some before snitching kernels for tasting, but…My husband calls it “crack” and my boys almost devoured the entire batch when they got home from school.I highly recommend it!

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…