Everyone has that go-to recipe. It’s that recipe you know by heart and you always have the ingredients stocked in your pantry. It’s a sure bet, the crowd pleaser and it never goes out of style. You always get compliments on it, to which you reply casually, “What? This little thing? T’was nothing, really!” (Okay, maybe you don’t use the word “t’was”.) Your friends call it your signature dish. You call it your secret recipe.
But some secrets are not meant to be kept – especially when it involves buttery caramel and flakes of crunchy salt.
And so I share with you my secret dish, my ace-up-the-sleeve when I need to create something I know no one will be able to resist – salted caramel corn.
Baked in the oven with a homemade caramel sauce, it has all the elements you want in a dessert – the buttery sweetness of the caramel, the crunchiness of the popcorn and of course the saltiness that makes this irresistible. It’s so good, you will be lucky if it sticks around for more than 24 hours. It never does in my household!
Salted Caramel Corn
Ingredients
5 quarts popped popcorn
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter
½ cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
Flake salt or Himalayan salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Pour popcorn into large baking pan and set aside. In a saucepan, combine sugar, butter, syrup and salt over medium heat. Melt until combined and bring to a boil. Boil for five minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in baking soda until the mixture gets fluffy. Immediately pour mixture onto popcorn and mix to coat evenly. Bake for 1 hour at 250 degrees, stirring every 15 minutes. Immediately transfer to wax or parchment paper, sprinkle with salt and allow to cool. Store in an airtight container.