Lately I’ve been led in the kitchen by hankerings. Aren’t they just the darndest? Midmorning on one of our several (hundred) (stupid) recent snowdays, I wanted peanut butter caramel corn. Inexplicably, really, as it’s a recipe I posted almost three years ago. I had everything on hand and nothing was going to stop me.
Long story short (it’s not really a long story – we were gluttons) the whole batch of popcorn was gone by the end of the day. It was AWESOME. I’d made this before with a smaller batch of popcorn and it was pretty rich; this time I air-popped a big bunch using this brown paper bag trick, which I do at least twice a week (I don’t use oil or salt – I spritz with olive oil once it comes out and salt to taste – also I only cook for a minute and 45 seconds instead of 2). I wondered if it would be less delicious since the caramel to popcorn ratio was changed? Nope. Still incredible.
My brother in law Jimmy stopped over in the afternoon to help us eat the popcorn (not really), but as he was noshing he asked, “did you MAKE this?”. It’s surprisingly easy for an impressive end result. Very happy to rehab this recipe as the original pictures didn’t do it justice. Please try, and soon!
Peanut Butter Caramel Corn
Adapted from Cooking Light
Cooking Spray
1 Bag Natural or very lightly salted popcorn, popped (to make “lighter”, do 1 1/2 bags popcorn) – between 6 and 8 cups total – start with 1/4 c. uncooked kernels if air popping
1/2 c. chopped or sliced almonds
2/3 c. packed brown sugar
2/3 c. light-colored corn syrup
2Â 1/2 tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. coarse kosher salt, for sprinkling
1. Preheat oven to 250.
2. Â Line a cookie sheet with parchment or waxed paper and spray with cooking spray.
3. Mix chopped almonds and popcorn in a large bowl.
4. In a saucepan, combine sugar, syrup, butter and salt. Bring to boil and then cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth.
6. Drizzle mixture over popcorn/almonds and mix until popcorn is evenly coated. Work quickly as it will harden.
7. Spread popcorn on prepared pan. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every fifteen minutes.
8. Let cool completely before storing in tupperware.
When we were little we used to pop ppocorn on the stove top, I did that several years ago for our son, he did have a clue of what I was doing, poor kids these days are missing out on all the fun stuff! Thanks for reminding me to do this, will have to do really soon! Love your blog and your pictures look so good, you just want to reach out and grab it!