The perfect food for a rainy Saturday afternoon with a movie

I normally make buttered, salted popcorn, but for an extra special treat, I made this crunchy caramel corn which is slow cooked in the oven to form a sweet, buttery shell around the popcorn. I used some gourmet blue corn I found when out shopping one day and used my hot air popper to pop the corn. If you don’t have one, you can pop your corn the old fashioned way in a heavy bottomed pan, or buy microwave popcorn and pop it that way.

Ingredients:
¾ cup of unpopped popping corn (one large handful!)
4 tbs butter
½ cup light brown sugar – packed
Pinch of salt

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees C/300 degrees F

Spread out the popped corn evenly over a non-stick baking sheet pan, or a buttered baking tin. You may need to use two baking trays if you don’t have a large one.
In a heavy bottomed pan, heat the butter, sugar and salt and bring to the boil until the caramel is golden.

Carefully pour the very hot caramel mixture over the corn and use a spatula to toss to coat. Spread the corn out again evenly and bake for 40 minutes, turning it every 10 minutes to ensure it is completely coated in a shell of crunchy caramel.

When it is ready, keep the children away from it and leave to cool before it is devoured!

You can also add peanuts, cashews or brazil nuts to the corn.