"Moose Munch" (Caramel/Toffee Popcorn)

Thats right folks. Moose Munch. Moose Munch is the name of a gourmet toffee popcorn sold by Harry and David (known for their delicious fruits, confections, and other gourmet food gifts). It is quite delicious. But, believe me.... making it at home will save you TONS of money! Plus, all your friends will love you IF you decide to share it.

 

First, you'll need about 5-6 quarts of popcorn. You could either air pop some if you have a popper. Or, if not, use the 94% Fat Free microwave popcorn. About 2 bags should do the trick (depending on how coated you want your popcorn, you could always do another half a bag or more. Personally, I am a fan of lots of caramel/toffee).  

You'll want to make sure your popcorn is popped and ready. I recommend you pop it and then shake the bowl a bit to get all the unpopped kernels to go to the bottom, then carefully scoop all the popcorn into a very large bowl, leaving the unpopped kernels behind. Believe me, you don't want to bite into a caramel covered kernel unexpectedly..... Oh, and let me emphasize the words VERY LARGE BOWL. The larger the bowl, the easier it will be to stir the popcorn to coat it in caramel when the time comes. Otherwise, the popcorn doesn't seem to stay in the bowl very well.

To make the caramel/toffee you will need:

 

2 sticks of butter

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup dark corn syrup

1 tsp salt

Stir together in a pot on the stove, melt,  and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for 5 minutes. You don't need to stir it or anything while it boils.

While it is boiling, make sure you have your popcorn is waiting for you and have your vanilla and baking soda prepared as well (measurements below).

Also, turn your oven on to 200 degrees.

After 5 minutes of boiling, remove from the heat and stir in:

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda (make sure there aren't any clumps)

Make sure it is well mixed in.Then, pour the caramel mixture over your popcorn.  Use a large wooden spoon to carefully stir the popcorn, coating it in the caramel. Stir, stir, stir, scraping the caramel off the bowl to make sure you get all of its goodness onto your popcorn.

Spread the popcorn onto two cookie sheets. Place in the oven. Bake for 1 hour total. Halfway through, turn the popcorn with a spatula and stir it around a bit. (You might also want to rotate your cookie sheets if you have them on two separate racks.)

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Once the popcorn is cooled, you just break it apart and store it in an air tight container!

VARIATIONS:

There are plenty of fun and tasty ways you can add to this basic recipe.

Want your popcorn CHOCOLATE coated as well? Melt some chocolate chips and then drizzle (or pour it... depending on how coated you want it!) the chocolate over the popcorn when it is partially cooled, then allow to cool and harden. You could use dark chocolate, semisweet, milk, white..... whatever you like! Have fun with it!

Are you a NUT lover? Try adding any combination of nuts to the popcorn BEFORE you pour the caramel over it. Then, mix the popcorn, nuts, and caramel and bake in the oven just as directed above. Almonds, peanuts, pecans, cashews........... nuts anyone?