Caramel Popcorn
Do you remember when microwaves were first invented? Well, I was just a kid and this is a recipe we made often and I have made it numerous times for my kids. Easy to make and no long wait for the popcorn to bake in the oven. You can have the batch eaten in the amount of time it takes to bake it the old fashioned way in the oven.
Do you remember when microwaves were first invented? Well, I was just a kid and this is a recipe we made often and I have made it numerous times for my kids. Easy to make and no long wait for the popcorn to bake in the oven. You can have the batch eaten in the amount of time it takes to bake it the old fashioned way in the oven.
- Carbohydrate 40.7281383161292 g
- Cholesterol 48.8050000310935 mg
- Fat 19.4323313429171 g
- Fiber 3.24976999308489 g
- Protein 3.1185229940199 g
- Saturated Fat 11.788227507159 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (69g)
- Sodium 139.85793341903 mg
- Sugar 37.4783683230443 g
- Trans Fat 1.50956536703147 g
- Calories 339 calories
Step-by-step
- Prepare popcorn by putting it into a grocery sized paper bag, set aside.
- In a large glass mixing bowl (2 quart) put syrup, butter, brown sugar and salt. Cook in microwave 2 minutes or until it boils.
- Remove from microwave and mix ingredients together well. Add and mix in baking soda.
- Cook another 2 minutes.
- Poor mixture over popcorn in bag, tossing popcorn to coat all kernels.
- Roll up end of bag to enclose popcorn and put it into the microwave.
- Cook for 1 1/2 minutes.
- Take out bag and shake, turn bag over and place in microwave again.
- Cook 1 minute.
- Shake out caramel popcorn onto two cookie sheets to cool.
- Once completely cooled it can be stored in an airtight container.
When the sugar and corn syrup mixture hits the two-minute mark in the microwave, timing dictates whether the result is a glossy coating or a burned mass. Sucrose molecules break down rapidly under direct heat, requiring precise observation of the boiling point to halt caramelization before bitter compounds form. Light corn syrup, composed of glucose chains, acts as an interfering agent that prevents the brown sugar from crystallizing back into a grainy texture.
Adding baking soda to the hot caramel creates an essential leavening reaction. Sodium bicarbonate reacts with the acidic components of the brown sugar, releasing microscopic carbon dioxide bubbles into the viscous syrup. This aeration lightens the density of the caramel, transforming a heavy sugar glaze into a porous foam that spreads easily across eight quarts of popped corn without weighing down the kernels.
The final microwave intervals inside a paper bag drive off residual moisture from the syrup. Without this targeted steam reduction, the sugar coating remains sticky rather than crisp. Monitoring the rotation ensures even heat distribution across the butter and sugar emulsion.
Spreading the finished batch across two cookie sheets immediately stops residual cooking and allows the sugar lattice to set into a brittle shell. Store the cooled snack in an airtight container to block ambient humidity from softening the crisp exterior.
