Popcorn was always a big thing in our household, especially my moms caramel corn. She makes some of the best. I came across a new recipe on Pinterest (where else?) that I thought would be easy to make and was cute for fall. This recipe took maybe 10 minutes and is delicious!! This would be perfect to bring to a family get together, a tailgate, or a bonfire with friends. Even if you're scrambling for time, this treat is perfect.
Here are the ingredients you need:
10 cups of popped popcorn
1 bag of rolos - mini's would be perfect if you can find them!
1 bag of fall M&M's
2 sticks of Sweet Cream butter
1 cup brown sugar
Salt
Baking Soda
Vanilla
I used these cute fall harvest M&M's but you could really use any kind you wanted. They have so many different flavors now so you could also make this with peanut M&M's, pecan pie, caramel, or any other kind to your liking.
So I started by popping 3 bags of plain popcorn - no butter. When all of the popcorn was popped, I spread it on my counter top or cookie sheet with parchment paper under it. I also sprinkled some salt on but didn't add too much - you want a nice sweet/salty combo. Once that was done, I melted 2 sticks of sweet cream butter on medium heat. This took about 5 minutes.
Once the butter was completely melted, I added 1 cup of light brown sugar and stirred that in my melted butter.
I didn't get a other pictures of my caramel sauce because you have to work quick with it but what I did was let my butter and brown sugar mix together and come to a boil. Once it was at a boil, I let it boil for 4 minutes - DO NOT STIR. At the 4 minute mark, add 2 tsp of vanilla and boil for 1 more minute - again DO NOT STIR. After 5 minutes, add 1/2 tsp of baking soda and stir it in to mix. And there you have it - homemade caramel sauce! Before it cools, poor it over your popped popcorn that you have laid out. The recipe I used said to save 1/4 of the sauce for after you add your toppings to bond it all together.
When you have 3/4 of your caramel sauce on your popcorn, sprinkle in your M&M's and add your rolos. After you've added your toppings, add the other 1/4 of your caramel sauce. And there you have it - Harvest Caramel Corn! You can dig in while the caramel is still warm or wait for it to cool completely before serving. This is a perfect treat because you taste the salt you added to the popcorn and from the butter and with the sweetness from the caramel and candies - perfect sweet/ salty snack. YUM!!! The only thing I would've done differently is put my popcorn in a brown bag and added the caramel sauce that way (add everything together and shake it up). I don't feel like my popcorn got covered as well as I would've liked with the caramel but it still tasted great! There are SO MANY varieties that you could do with this recipe so let me know if you try this one or come up with one of your own.
If you want to try this recipe, find it HERE