Chocolate Caramel Popcorn

This was another goodie that I made this Sunday in honor of the Oscar's - you can't watch a show about the movies without some popcorn!  Since this is a night where Hollywood gets dressed up - I decided to dress up my popcorn!  This isn't my favorite caramel corn recipe - I wish that this had a LOT more caramel, but it was still yummy!  This was an easier caramel corn recipe that was perfect since I decided to make it about an hour before we left for to go watch the Oscars.

Chocolate Caramel Popcorn
Recipe from The Craving Chronicles

1/2 cup popcorn kernels
15 unwrapped caramels
3 Tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 Tablespoon butter
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 Tablespoon butter

Pop popcorn in air-popper, place in large bowl.

Add caramels, heavy cream and 1/2 Tablespoon butter in saucepan over low heat.  Stir frequently until caramel is melted.   Drizzle popcorn with caramel mixture and stir to coat evenly.  Scatter popcorn on baking sheet lined with waxed paper.

Melt chocolate chips and remaining butter in double boiler.  Drizzle over popcorn.

Let sit at room temperature for at least an hour until chocolate hardens.

ENJOY!

Shared on Sweets for Saturday!

Muddy Buddies & Giveaway Winner!

I am so glad that I get to share the wonderful prize pack with.......

Mami2jcn picked by random.org.  She said "I love to make cake with Betty Crocker mixes."

Congrats!

I thought that I would share this fun and easy recipe, I'm sure many of you have already made this but previous to this weekend I had only had Muddy Buddies once before - someone brought them into the office for a Halloween Potluck.  I remember liking them but I don't remember them being so addictive!  This month the team that I signed up for with Operation Baking Gals requested Muddy Buddies, thank goodness I shipped almost the entire batch out because these things are GOOD!  Six simple ingredients and these are a yummy treat for the whole family!

Muddy Buddies
Recipe from Betty Crocker

9 cups of Chex - I used Corn Chex
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 powdered sugar

Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute.  Stir and microwave for 30 additional seconds until smooth.  Stir in vanilla.  Pour over cereal and toss to coat.  Place half of the mixture into a large ziploc bag - add half of the powdered sugar and toss to coat.  Lay cereal out on cookie sheet covered with waxed paper.  Repeat with remaining cereal.   Let cereal cool and store in airtight container.

Enjoy!

Caramel Corn

I love popcorn!  I always have to get it at the movies - I won't eat before the movies just so I can have enough room for a tub of popcorn!  We have an air popper that I use a couple of times a week - we just add some melted butter and salt and enjoy!  While checking out some different blogs a couple of weeks ago I came across this caramel corn recipe and decided that I would have to try this ASAP!  The best thing is that I had everything is that I needed!

The result was really yummy!  I only made a half recipe in case I didn't like it and because my husband and I do need a ton of this stuff around!  I do caution that you check the popcorn often towards the end - I ended up cooking mine about 10 minutes less than the recipe suggested.

Caramel Corn
Adapted from Annie's Eats

1/2 cup popcorn kernals, unpopped
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Pop popcorn and place in two large bowls - you need a lot of room to toss the popcorn with the syrup.

Melt butter over medium heat, once melted add in the corn syrup, brown sugar and salt.  Increase heat and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.  Boil for 5 minutes without stirring.  Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla.  Caution - mixture will boil and froth at this point.   Pour the caramel over the popcorn and stir to coat.  You need to work quickly because the caramel does begin to harden.

Spread the mixture evenly onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake at 250 degrees for 40 minutes tossing every ten minutes.  Test after 30 - 40 minutes.   Allow to cool completely before breaking up to serve.

Buttercrunch Toffee

I have always wanted to make Toffee, but was always nervous that it would be too hard.   I finally got the courage to try it after seeing this recipe on The Noshery.  I am really glad that I tried it because it was really easy and the end result was tasty.  I will definitely make a couple of batches this holiday season - it would be a wonderful hostess gift!  I think that I will leave out the almonds on the bottom of the pan next time because they didn't really incorporate into the toffee.

Buttercrunch Toffee
Recipe from The Noshery

2 cups sliced almonds, toasted
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 Tablespoons water
1/2 cup butter
1 Tablespoon corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
6 oz. chopped semi sweet chocolate

Place almonds in the food processor and pulse until finely chopped.  Sprinkle half on the bottom of a buttered 9x13 pan.  Set aside.

In a saucepan combine brown sugar, water, butter and corn syrup.  Bring to a boil and cook until it reaches 285 degrees on a candy thermometer.  Remove from heat and temperature will rise to 290 degrees.  Add baking soda and vanilla, stir to combine.  Immediately pour over almonds.  Sprinkle with chocolate and let sit until chocolate is soft.  Spread evenly over toffee.  Sprinkle almonds over chocolate and let cool.

Once cool break apart into desired shapes.

Homemade Potato Chips

What happens when you leave your husband home alone watching the Food Network????

If you live at my house, that means that you are going to walk thru the door and your hubby is going to announce that we are making homemade potato chips!

I was really excited about this new project as it was a perfect chance for me to pull out the mandolin that we got for our wedding and fry away!   The entire process did take a little time but we may never purchase another bag of potato chips again!  They were that good!  We almost didn't get a picture because we kept eating them as soon as they got cool enough - although a little burnt fingers would have been worth it to get these little suckers in my mouth!

The process was really easy - we just heated up about 3 inches of vegetable oil in my dutch oven to 350 degrees.  Then we sliced up the potatoes on the 1/8" setting on the mandolin and fried them for about a minute.  We did about 5 potatoes and had to fry them in quite a few batches.  Once they are cooked we placed them on a paper towel lined cookie sheet to drain and sprinkled them with kosher salt.

They are fantastic on their own but I added a dollop of sour cream to my plate to dip away ~ DELISH!

I do have to warn you - do not make these if you are on a diet!  You will NOT be able to stop!