But it was worth it

I love birthdays, both mine and everybody else’s. I am one of those people that feels a birthday should never pass without at least a little fanfare and celebration. They should always be recognized with presents too. Yes, I’m one of those people who will bring a gift to a party even when the invitation says No Gifts. I feel I can sneak it in because the majority of the time it’s homemade. And really, who doesn’t want presents?

A great friend recently had a birthday, and his lovely fiancée had a barbecue at their house after an afternoon spent floating down the river. Simple was the name of the game (which is always hard for me, the Queen of Overboard), so keeping myself to the side dish and dessert requested of me was, ahem, difficult. I feel I did a good job and brought exactly what I was asked to and stuck to what I said I was making.

Except for the caramel corn.

I decided that morning to make a batch of cayenne caramel corn for Justin’s birthday gift. Spicy caramel corn? I dare you to resist the second handful after you’ve tried the first. The cayenne is really sneaky in this application: the corn starts out caramel-ly and just a bit smoky, and then right after you chew and swallow POW there’s the heat. It’s killer.

Of course things didn’t go as planned. You know you have those days in the kitchen when EVERYTHING goes awry. Well, the pear cake I made for dessert stuck to the inside of the bundt pan (which is a pan notorious for doing this when I’m making a cake for company, so I’m donating it to the Goodwill), which pissed me off. It should have been enough to slow my determination for the morning but it didn’t. And then, THEN, I went and burned the first two batches of caramel for the corn coating. Really, I should have seen it coming.

So, if you’ve ever dabbled in caramel making, then you know that the time it takes to blink is ample to completely burn a whole stinking batch. And when I say stinking I mean it, the smell of burned caramel is second only to a tire fire. This experience was an exercise in reading comprehension and cookbook writing. The cookbook outlines to cook the caramel for 10 minutes. You’ll see below that I note that the cooking process for the caramel is about 10 minutes from the second you turn on the burner. It might just be me but you can never have too much clarification or use too many words when dealing with molten lava, er, sugar. It’s a shame it took me two batches to figure this out (especially since I’ve made this exact recipe before), but you can bet I noted this in the cookbook for the next time I make it (not that I will forget anytime soon. That smell).

One tool I deployed for this is my new best friend, Reynold’s Non-Stick Foil. Ever seen this stuff before? I keep a roll hanging around for exactly this reason: it’s just as easy as using a Silpat but twice as nice because you don’t have to wash it. And for a girl without an automatic dish washing machine, this is my kind of awesome as it saves me from having to wash the pan. And to round it all out it’s recyclable. YES! Get some, you won’t be sorry.

I digress. Despite my woes this is the BEST caramel corn recipe. You can leave the cayenne out, of course, if you want a more traditional recipe. You can add peanuts if you like, or melt some chocolate and make a nice drizzle for the top, which I did for this batch. Festive sprinkles might be fun too, if you’re making it for a party favor (I forsee bags with bat and spook sprinkles for Halloween… maybe some candy corns mixed in for fun?).

Spicy Caramel Corn
Adapted From The Craft of Baking

-Nonstick Cooking Spray
– 3 T. vegetable oil
– 1/2 c. popcorn kernels
– 1 1/2 t. baking soda
– 3/4 t. cayenne
– 3 c. sugar
– 3 T. unsalted butter
– 1 1/2 t. kosher salt

Lightly coat two large heatproof spatulas and a large mixing bowl with cooking spray. This is no time to be chintzy, give it an even but thinly thorough coat. Line two half sheet pans with that good non-stick foil and set aside.

In a large pot with a lid, heat the vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add the popcorn kernels, cover and keep the pot moving until all (or almost all) of the kernels have popped, about 4ish minutes. For pete’s sake don’t quit moving the pan or you may burn your popcorn. Transfer the popped corn to your prepped bowl and pick out the old maids (unpopped kernels for you not familiar with the parlance of popcorn).

In a small bowl, combine the baking soda and cayenne. Set aside.

In a medium heavy bottomed sauce pan, combine the sugar, butter, salt and 1/2 c. of water. Cook over high heat, without stirring, until the mixture turns a light goldeny caramel color, about 10 minutes from when you turn on the heat. Mine takes a solid 8 minutes. When it doubt, pull it. Better not quite caramely enough than the tire fire you’ll get instead. They say a watched pot never boils but trust me, watch this pot the whole time and don’t move. 

When golden caramel color is achieved, remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the baking soda mixture. Don’t stand directly over the pot here, as the cayenne will travel into the steam and it will burn your eyes and sinus passages. Yes I speak from experience. The mixture will also bubble up furiously so be careful. I know, this is dangerous business but it’s worth it I tell you.

Immediately pour the contents of the pan over the popcorn in your prepped bowl. Working quickly, use the two spatulas to toss the caramel and corn together until the corn is well coated. Pour the coated corn onto your two lined sheet pans and quickly flatten and separate it into small chunks with the spatula while it’s still warm (don’t use your fingers here, the caramel is still really hot and sticks like napalm). Cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes. Once it’s cool transfer to an airtight container. It will keep for about 2 weeks if kept sealed. I can’t attest to this, of course, because it generally doesn’t make it past a day or two around our house.