Quick Baking with Mary Elizabeth: Caramel Popcorn

Christmas has many different meanings. I could have started this article with the age-old question of "What is the true meaning of Christmas?" but decided that such a technique is a bit overdone. Instead, I just started with the truth: Christmas has many different meanings. Each person has, after experiencing Christmas a number of times, developed their own meaning for this holiday. One person looks at Christmas as a time for family and friends to gather and enjoy one another's company while another person looks at Christmas as a time for presents.

Despite all of these opinions, there is a commercialized sense of Christmas. This is the part where everyone groans, remembering seeing Christmas trees for sale in October. The commercialized Christmas puts everything that Christmas stands for (in my humble opinion) at risk. It threatens the very fibers that create this season of love and sharing. And thus, to combat this impending sense of doom, I would like to share this recipe with you.

Why this particular recipe? Two reasons. #1: Caramel popcorn can't help but make you smile. #2: As Christmas is about sharing, I thought it would be appropriate to share a recipe that someone else shared with me. My roommate made caramel popcorn once last year. She was kind enough to share the sweet and tasty morsels and, a couple of weeks ago when asked, she was kind enough to share the recipe. And thus, I now share it with you.

Caramel Popcorn

Ingredients

1 cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

½ cup corn syrup

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 quarts popped popcorn

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Pour popcorn into two large, shallow baking dishes.

2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over the popcorn (divide carefully between the two pans) and stir the pans so that the popcorn is coated.

3. Bake in the preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for one hour. Remove from oven and pour onto wax paper to cool. Once it is cool, enjoy!

Notes:

• This might be a sin against caramel popcorn, but I used bags of buttered popcorn. If you are talented enough, you can get fancy and use real kernels.

• Do not eat this until it is cooled. I know that it is very tempting, but if you give in to the temptation, you will have caramel stuck in your teeth for approximately one hour.