Easy Caramel Popcorn

Whenever I make this recipe I think of my college roommate Allison, because she would make it often, and then share it with us.  The original recipe calls for brown sugar, but occasionally I make it with white sugar and add food coloring.  When I do that, it reminds me of my hometeachers when I was a little girl.  Every Christmas they would bring our family a bag of green popcorn and a bag of red (really pink) popcorn.  I don't know if they used this recipe or not, but they might have.

Easy Caramel Popcorn

2 batches popped corn (use about 2/3 cup kernels)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/3 cup white corn syrup

Place the sugar, butter and corn syrup in a small pan and bring it to a boil. Note that for the batch pictured above, I halved the syrup recipe and poured it over 1/2 cup kernels popped. And I added a bit of chopped peanuts and mini M&M's that were leftover from making Rocky Road Cups. Wayne noticed that the topping was sparser, but it was still plenty sweet to me.

(I usually melt the butter first; it speeds things up.)

 

Boil for two minutes, then pour immediately over the popcorn.

 

Stir well to combine.  Be careful - it's hot!

Turn out onto a piece of waxed paper to cool.  Then enjoy.