Caramel Toffee Popcorn

As one of our New Year's treats for the kids we made homemade caramel popcorn.  It definitely takes a little extra effort and time but it's worth it.  It came out super delicious.  It reminds me more of toffee popcorn rather than caramel.  After you make the caramel and toss it with the popcorn you need to take the extra step of baking it in a low temperature oven in order to get the caramel to harden and get crispy once it cools.  So worth it, you end up with a not sticky easy to handle buttery toffee caramel corn.  A must try!  I think this would be amazing if you mix in peanuts into the caramel coated corn before you place it in the oven or even better if you sprinkle toffee pieces onto of the corn right after it comes out of the oven before the caramel sets.  The variations are endless!

Ingredients:

2 cup popscorn kernels, unpopped or 3 bags of microwave popcorn
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
½ cup light corn syrup
2 cups packed light brown sugar
½ tsp. fleur de sel (or salt) - I used coarse kosher salt
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preparation:

Pop the kernels by following the directions on the bag. Place the popped corn in to large bowls (leave room for tossing).  Preheat the oven to 250° F and line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a 2 quart saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter then mix-in the corn syrup, brown sugar and salt. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring to incorporate all ingredients. Then let boil for 5 minutes without stirring. Remove from the heat and stir in the baking soda and vanilla extract. Be careful because the caramel mixture will bubble up and become frothy.
Pour the caramel sauce over the popcorn in the bowl(s) and toss to coat thoroughly. The caramel is very hot so use tossing tools like long spoons or salad tossers!  Spread the popcorn onto the baking sheets and bake for 40 minutes (remove from the oven to stir every 10 minutes, rotate the baking sheets). After 40 minutes, the popcorn should be completely crispy when cooled. If not return to oven for another 10 minutes.  Let the popcorn cool completely before breaking apart.  Once cooled you can store in an air tight container for at least a week if it lasts that long.

Mini Apple Crisp with Salted Caramel

I created this recipe for the Improv Cooking Challenge.  This month's ingredients are apples and caramel.  I decided to make these non-dairy (Parve) as a dessert for Susan's Rosh Hashana dinner.  I was amazed how the non-dairy version of this caramel sauce came out delicious so if you are Kosher or do not eat dairy this caramel sauce is excellent.  If you prefer to  make a dairy version of these just substitute the margarine for butter and the non-dairy creamer for heavy cream.

Ingredients:

30 Athens Mini Phyllo Shells (sold in the frozen dessert section of your supermarket)

3 McIntosh Apples, chopped

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 cup water

For Salted Caramel:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup non dairy creamer -coffee rich (can substitute heavy cream if you want a dairy caramel)

2 tablespoons of non-dairy margarine (can substitute butter if you want a dairy caramel)

1 teaspoon of coarse salt

For Crisp:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup of non-dairy margarine (can substitute butter for a dairy crisp)

1/3 cup brown sugar

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line Phyllo Shells on a lined baking sheet.  You can spray baking sheet lightly with non-stick cooking spray to ensure they don't stick or use a Silpat liner. 

Place chopped apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until the apples just start to get soft and breakdown.  Turn off heat and set aside

Next, prepare the caramel sauce.  Place sugars, non-dairy creamer and margarine in a small heavy bottomed sauce pan.  Stir and bring mixture to a low boil stirring occasionally.  Cook caramel until all the sugar is dissolved and sauce begins to thicken, about 10-15 minutes.  Take off heat and sprinkle in salt, stir to incorporate, set aside.

Next, prepare the crisp topping.  Combine, flour, oats, sugar and margarine in a medium bowl.  cut margarine into the sugar, flour mixture using 2 knives or a pastry cutter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.

Now you are ready to assemble the mini apple crisps.  Spoon a small amount of caramel sauce in the bottom of each Phyllo Shell.  Next spoon about a teaspoon of the apple mixture into each Phyllo Shell.  The apple mixture should come up to the top of the shell.  Next using your hands take a big pinch of the crisp topping and place on top of each mound of apples.  It's okay if you press the mixture together so it's easier to handle and "mold". 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.  They are done with the topping is lightly brown and the apple mixture begins to bubble. 

Remove from cookie sheet and allow to cool a little bit.  Drizzle extra caramel sauce on the top of each apple crisp.  I think they taste best if they are served warm but they are delicious fully cooled too.

Linked to Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Zucchini and Yellow Squash Cinnamon Chip Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

As usual I had some produce that I wanted to use so it didn't go to waste.  I had a HUGE zucchini and a HUGE yellow squash.  I wasn't in the mood to make something savory so I made these really delicious cupcakes.  It's a combination of a few recipes plus with a bunch of changes I made myself.  The end result was a really YUMMY one.  I made 24 zucchini cinnamon chip cupcakes and 24 yellow squash cinnamon chip cupcakes but I think next time I'll just combine the two.  Good thing I made 48 cupcakes because I wanted to bring at least 24 to a friends house and my family (my husband and 3 kids ate ALL the other 24 in less than a day).  I guess they liked them.  I thought they were delicious without the frosting but with the frosting, WOW!  I never made a caramel frosting before and now it's a new favorite of mine. 

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup apple juice 

1 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups zucchini or yellow squash, grated (you could also do a combination of both)

1 cup of cinnamon chips

Caramel Frosting

1/2 lb caramels unwrapped (about 28 caramels)

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup water 

3-4 cups powdered sugar

Preparation:

Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill muffin tins with cupcake liners. Wash and grate zucchini, set aside.   In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla and apple juice, set aside.  In a medium bowl whisk together, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Gradually add dry ingredients to the wet until completely combined.  Mix in the grated zucchini and cinnamon chips..  Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full

Bake for about 15 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean

Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:
Melt caramels in water in top of double boiler over boiling water, stirring now and then.  Cool sauce to room temperature. Thoroughly cream the butter add salt.  Add sugar alternately with the caramel sauce, blending till frosting is smooth and creamy.  You can spread the frosting on with a knife or put frosting in a pastry bag fitted with a large circle or large star tip and pipe frosting out.  A little goes a long way.....this frosting is very sweet.