Holiday Popcorn

I feel like this is one of those food/traditions that you love or hate. I am one of those people who loves the giant holiday tin of popcorn, filled to the brim with 3 delicious types of popcorn(we all know the cheddar and caramel disappear first....) Alas, no one sent a holiday popcorn tin to my apartment this year. So I decided instead of going out and buying myself one(sad?) I would just make some caramel popcorn. While the argument between caramel and cheddar is a tough battle, I am always a sucker for the salty/sweet combo, so caramel won out. 

I went to the grocery store thinking I would just get a box of bag popcorn and pop a bunch. Well when I realized that a huge jar of unpopped kernels was WAY cheaper, I decided it might be fun to go old school and pop it on the stove.....
I was quick to do some google research and came across this awesome set of directions. I followed these to a T and ended up with a giant bowl of perfectly popped popcorn. Now for the fun part- making the caramel topping!

Ingredients:
1 cup unpopped kernels
1 cup butter
1 cup light corn syrup
1 can sweet condensed milk
2 1/4 cups light brown sugar

Directions:
-Cover a large cookie sheet with wax paper
-Melt butter over medium heat, once butter is melted add the rest of the ingredients and combine. You need to stir constantly throughout this entire process!

-Once all ingredients are combined turn heat up slightly and bring ingredients to a boil.

-Boil for 3-4 minutes until the mixture begins to lighten slightly. Then remove from heat and pour over cooled popcorn.

-Stir the popcorn until all kernels are coated. The pour onto baking sheet to cool! 

It was really hard to let it cool, and while it was yummy while it was warm, it was even better once it had a chance to set, so try to hold out! I also added a little extra sea salt to the top once I spread it out on the baking sheet! This stuff was SO good! It was also really easy to make! It would be a great holiday treat for friends and family or any easy sweet to set out at a holiday gathering! 

Hope everyone is getting into the holiday spirit! Herman will make a holiday appearance on the blog later this week in order to send out his holiday greetings!