I don’t share recipes much, having exhausted my repertoire some years ago. 🙂 But this lovely fall afternoon I wanted to make some Caramel Corn, and I thought I’d share the recipe here. This is one of my husband’s favorite snacks, especially when warm from the oven, and seems especially fallish.

I’ve been using this particular recipe for years. I don’t remember who I got it from, but I do remember asking someone for it after we had it at a ladies’ meeting at church. I stuck it over the Caramel Corn recipe in my cookbook, and it has been there ever since, some 30+ years now!

Speaking of cookbooks, this is my Betty Crocker cookbook that I have had since college. It’s in sad shape, with the spine and back having come off a while back.

I’ve thought about getting a new one, but I am sure the recipes would be different. I’ve thought about taking it apart and putting the recipes I use in the recipe books I compiled a few years ago. But – I know this one well and can find things by instinct at this point. So I’ll probably just use it as is until it falls apart.

By the way, I have a theory that the most stained recipes in a cookbook are the most used and therefore the best ones. Unless the cook is extremely neat – which I am not.

Anyway, back to the Caramel Corn. Here is the recipe:

Caramel Corn

Ingredients:

22 cups popped popcorn
1 1/2 sticks margarine
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup Karo (corn) syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Spread the popped corn in two ungreased baking sheets. Boil the margarine, brown sugar, and syrup in a saucepan on low to medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring very frequently. Remove pan from heat and stir in salt and soda. Mixture will get foamy. Pour over the popped corn and stir to coat evenly. Place baking sheets in oven for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Remove sheets from oven and let cool just until you can handle the popcorn, maybe 10 minutes. It hardens quickly. By hand or using a spoon put the popcorn in a container and cover.

Optional: Use 20 cups popcorn and 2 cups unsalted or lightly salted peanuts.

Unfortunately, as I was putting supplies away while the corn was in the oven, I noticed the corn syrup said it “might” contain trace elements of wheat. I had been looking forward to sharing these with my daughter-in-law, who is sensitive to gluten. That’s one of those items you would never suspect had gluten. The way it was worded makes my husband think it was just processed in a room with wheat or the corn grew in a field next to wheat. I’ll leave it to my daughter-in-law to decide whether it’s worth the risk. This was a store-brand corn syrup – I don’t know if the name brand would be the same.

I also made some Rice Krispie treats, only using the gluten-free off-brand and the recipe on the package. I always add peanut butter to the marshmallow mixture and melt chocolate chips (sometimes adding peanut butter chips if I have them) and spread them on top.

I like to eat the first serving while the chocolate is still gooey. 🙂

Of course, the Rice Krispie treats aren’t particularly fallish, but I’ve had a hankering for them recently. 🙂

I have another cookie recipe I especially like to make in the fall, but that will have to wait. What are your favorite fall treats?

(Sharing with Made By You Monday)