Amish Caramel Popcorn

[kirra]

Amish Caramel Popcorn

Ingredients:

7 quarts plain popped popcorn
2 cups dry roasted peanuts (optional) {substitute almond slivers, or other nuts, or even dried cranberries or other dried chopped fruit)
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup margarine
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

Place the popped popcorn into two shallow greased baking pans. You may use roasting pans, jelly roll pans, or disposable roasting pans. Add the peanuts to the popped corn if using. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F. Combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, margarine and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring enough to blend. Once the mixture begins to boil, boil for 5 minutes while stirring constantly.

Remove from the heat, and stir in the baking soda and vanilla. The mixture will be light and foamy. Immediately pour over the popcorn in the pans, and stir to coat. (An easy way to coat the popcorn is to put the popped corn in a paper grocery bag and pour the caramel mixture over it and stir with a wooden spoon, then dump the mixture out onto your baking pan and throw the paper bag away.) Don't worry too much at this point about getting all of the corn coated.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, removing the pans, and giving them each a good stir every 15 minutes. Line the counter top with waxed paper. Dump the corn out onto the waxed paper and separate the pieces. Allow to cool completely, then store in airtight containers or resealable bags.