Traditions

I remember a long time ago, that the families in our neighborhood would exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. My dad would load up the car with our gifts to give all the neighborhood families. We used to have a dozen families swing by our place to wish us happy holidays and to drop off gifts (which were usually something amazing to eat and only reserved for the holidays). For many years we made caramel corn for our neighbors. I was the one who usually made it. After a couple of years, the caramel corn became the expected Vincill family gift. We even had neighbors give back the tins for refill. Refills? Yeh, thats right, expected refills on the Vincill family caramel corn.

I haven't made carmel corn in over 15 years, but today I checked out the Organette Blog and she had a post on carmel corn, and it brought back a flood of childhood memories. I miss those years. There, I said it. I am a sucker for Christmas traditions. Now as Ruthie and I start our family together, I get excited about starting our own Christmas traditions. Today we made a batch of the Vincill family caramel corn and are sharing it with our good friends in Madison.

This is the original family caramel corn with new twist. I added fleur de sel (flaked sea salt) which compliments and intensifies the caramel flavor.

Vincill family Caramel Corn with Fleur de Sel

makes 3-quarts or more

16-18 cups of popcorn (make sure it is not salted or buttered; 2x for popcorn recipe)

2 cups light brown sugar

1 cup butter

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/2 tsp table salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups roasted, salted peanuts

1/2 tsp fleur de sel (flaked sea salt)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Make popcorn and put into two very large pans (preferably with high sides) and place in the oven to keep warm. In a 3 quart saucepan, bring sugar, butter, corn syrup, and salt to a boil over medium heat. Stir only until it comes to a boil and then stop stirring. Boil over medium heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit until it stops bubbling. Quickly add 1/2 tsp. of baking soda and 1 tsp. vanilla and stir for less than 30 seconds until it starts to foam up. Pour quickly and evenly over warmed popcorn and stir until evenly distributed. Don't worry if all of the caramel doesn't coat each individual piece of popcorn because that will happen later. Evenly distribute coated corn into the two large sheet pans. Add peanuts (optional) and place in oven for an hour stirring every 15 minutes. During the last 15 minutes, sprinkle 1/2 tsp fluer de sel over the caramel corn and it will stick to the carmel.

After an hour, remove from the heat and place on wax paper and separate large pieces. Cool completely and store in airtight containers. The peanuts usually don't stick to the carmel and usually drop to the bottom of the containers.