I am Hilah, and today on Hilah Cooking I am going to show ya'll how to make a homemade

caramel corn, and this is going to be really simple and there's no high fructose corn

syrup or any junk like that, and it's just a great thing to have on hand during the holidays.

It's a great little snack if you have unexpected guests, or like, if you realize the last minute

you probably should have a Christmas present for somebody, and you don't have one, you

can just put some in a little cellophane bag, tie a bow on it, and be like blam!

It's reindeer corn.

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[Homemade Caramel Corn Recipe]

>> Hilah: First we are going to make our popcorn for our caramel corn.

I've got some popcorn kernels here in a large pot, and I'm just going to put it

on high heat and let it start getting hot, and we'll add about a tablespoon of oil,

and you cannot, you cannot, I don't want to tell you that you can't do anything,

but I really recommend not using microwave popcorn and actually buying kernels and popping

it yourself, the reason being that microwave popcorn is a little bit more fragile than

fresh popped corn, and also to me I think it's just too salty, and I think that once

you try making popcorn yourself from actual kernels, you will have fun with it, and you

probably won't want to go back to the microwave stuff unless you like that, I don't know.

I am not judging.

Anyway, so I've got oil in there, and then just want to start out, we are going to put

like three kernels in the oil and put the lid on it, and then you just want to listen,

listen closely for those to pop.

As soon as the first one pops we can go ahead and put in the rest of our kernels.

This is just gonna let us know when the oil is hot enough so that we can minimize our

burning risk of the popcorn, burn popcorn, so shhh, listen.

Hear that?

That was a pop.

There is another one.

Okay, put that in, and I am gonna turn the heat down to like a medium high, so I am like

a seven out of ten on my stove, and start giving it a little shake.

You don't need to like shake it like crazy until it really starts going; it's happening.

Things are happening in there.

I think there's nothing more exciting than the sound of a whole bunch of popcorn popping

inside a pot.

Okay, when you hear it start to slow down like that, I am going to turn the heat off

and just let it sit here with the heat, and give it some shakes.

Okay, all the popping is done.

So now I just pour it into a big bowl.

If you don't have two big bowls, you can do what I am doing and use a colander and

a bowl, so this first step, this is very important, especially if you're going to be giving

this as a gift.

Well, I mean even if you're not because you don't want to break a tooth on Christmas.

That would suck because all of the dentists are closed except for the fancy, expensive

emergency ones, so we've got our popcorn in here and you just want to start giving

it a little shake.

This is going to get all of the un-popped kernels and all of the only partially popped

kernels kind of sunk to the bottom.

Okay, and then just use your clean little mitts to scoop out little pieces at a time

and as you go just kind of look and make sure you are not getting any un-popped kernels

in there.

It's totally worth the extra time to do this.

Okay, so these little, little bits over here I am gonna discard, and we'll just set this

aside, and now we can start working on our caramel sauce.

I've got a stick of butter in my pot here.

I am going to melt that along with some water.

The stick of butter is four ounces for people who don't have sticks and then some brown

sugar and some white sugar.

If you want more of a caramelly taste, you can use all brown sugar.

I am actually going to add some cocoa powder and cinnamon because I like this chocolate

cinnamon thing and a little bit of salt in here too.

You could add whatever kind of flavoring that you like.

If you wanted to do like a pumpkin pie spice thing, or I was even thinking I am gonna add

some nuts later, and I was even thinking that if you want to use those like smoked almonds

and then maybe add some chipotle powder to this cocoa cinnamon thing, that might be a

really awesome like sweet, savory, spicy kind of combination.

I think I might try that next time.

So, anyway, we are just going to get this melted, and then boil it for five minutes,

and you want to make sure you watch it because it will kind of bubble up, and you don't

want it to boil over.

After your butter has melted, it will pretty quickly start to bubble and boil and toil

and trouble.

That was not the right order of words, so you just want to keep stirring it.

So we're just going to cook it for about five minutes until it starts to thicken, and

I'll show what that looks like.

It'll get kind of syrupy.

All right, about five minutes later you'll start to get this sort of like sludgy, tarry

looking stuff.

It looks really bubbly and it's thick, see that, so I am gonna turn it off, and then

we can add in our vanilla extract, and the reason you add this at the end I think is

just because the flavor holds up better than if you try to cook it.

It will bubble.

It's very exciting, and then we're going to add a little bit of baking soda, and this

does the same thing in this recipe that it does in cookies and stuff.

It just makes bubbles in there to sort of make a lighter toffee in the end, so it makes

the little tiny bubbles so that when it cools it's easier to bite into, kind of like a,

like a Butter Finger bar where it's got little flaky layers like that.

All right, this looks great!

Now, we're ready to toss it with our popcorn and nuts, and I've got here pecans and almonds,

but you can use any nuts you like, and put our nuts in with our popcorn, and then just

pour our caramel sauce over and start tossing it around, and be careful not to touch this

with your hands because obviously it's really hot, and use a bigger bowl than I'm using.

Okay, once your popcorn is pretty well coated you can spread it out on the baking sheet,

and I've got this just covered with some parchment paper, and just try to get it in

a single layer if you can, not in big, giant clumps hopefully.

Okay.

Awesome!

I am just gonna put this in the oven.

You want kind of a low oven like 250 for about 30 minutes and just give it a little toss

with the spatula about, you know, every ten minutes or so to make sure it's cooking

evenly, and I'll see you back then.

All right, 30 minutes later, and I let this cool, and you're left with these little,

dry, crisp, sweet, little caramel corns.

Mmm mmmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmmmmm!

Man!

I love popcorn!

Popocorn has got to be one of my favorite snacks in the whole world.

So, I hope you try this recipe.

I hope you share it with your loved ones, and maybe throw it in some little bags and

make some cute little presents of it, stocking stuffers, whatever, hostess gifts, stuff like

that, and I will see you guys in 2013, so have a wonderful Christmas and a happy New

Year, okay, bye guys!

Love you!

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