spicy & sweet caramel popcorn

I’m completely addicted to Super Natural Cooking. I’ve yet to make a recipe from this book that I haven’t loved. Of course, prescription it’s vegetarian and I am most decidedly not, viagra here so I add meat where I think it enhances a recipe. Or, I make the snacks, dips and desserts as I did last night.

I’ve always loved popcorn. When I was a kid, I used to love the stuff that came in the big cans with the 3-way divider. There was that bright orange cheesy popcorn, the abnormally bright yellow buttery corn and the nut-brown caramel corn. Always partial to salty things, the cheesy corn was my favorite. But I married a sweet tooth. So, last night we had sweet caramel corn instead of dinner. I really liked the surprising bite of the chili powder in this recipe, but thought the final product was overwhelmingly sweet. It was even too much for my sweet-toothed hub. Next time, I’m halving the syrups. I’m posting the full recipe below, but I’ll revise it once I figure out the right amount of syrup to use.

Recipe after jump…

spicy & sweet caramel popcorn
From Super Natural Cooking, 2007.

1 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup old fashioned popcorn

1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup brown rice syrup (available at natural food stores)
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp. pure chili powder
1 tsp. fine grain sea salt

Heat a large pot over high heat. When the pot is hot enough, melt the butter and throw in the popcorn kernels. Cover with lid. Continuously shake the pan while the popcorn pops (to avoid burning). Once the popping subsides, remove lid and pour popcorn out into a giant bowl. Place a large sheet of parchment on a work surface (you will use this to cool the popcorn once it’s been covered in syrup).

Using the same pot, simmer the syrups, salt and spices over medium heat. Instead of stirring with a spoon, swirl the pot around and around until the syrup bubbles and begins to reduce (5 minutes). Once it’s ready, remove the pot from the heat and pour the popcorn back in, mixing gently until all the popcorn is evenly coated. Then, spread the popcorn over the parchment in one even layer and let cool for about 10 minutes.