Homemade Cracker Jacks Recipe
Popcorn is one of my favorite snacks. In my house we always buy one of those big cans with three different flavors in it at Christmas time.I tend to gobble up the butter/cheese flavors first, while my family prefers the caramel variety.
However, the biggest fight in our house comes not over what flavor to eat, but in when to take out that cardboard divider. I can’t stand chaos and removing it spells chaos to me! GET YOUR HANDS OFF IT -twitches-
It’s been over 6 months since that lovely Christmas popcorn tin. We’ve had plenty of cheese and butter popcorn since then, but not caramel.
I wanted to whip up an extra special version. This reminds me a lot of Cracker Jacks since it is made with a thick home made caramel sauce and peanuts.
Homemade Cracker Jacks Recipe
- 10-12 cups of air popped Popcorn (Okay so substitute a 3.5 ounce bag of Microwave popcorn)
- 1 cup Brown Sugar,packed
- ¼ cup Light Corn Syrup
- ½ cup Butter,melted
- 1 tbsp Water
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- 1 cup Salted Peanuts
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Pop your popcorn by following the instructions on the kernels.
- Spray a large bowl with cooking spray. Pour popped corn in.
- Mix together brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, salt , and water in a medium saucepan.
- Simmer stirring frequently until the temperature reaches 250 on a candy thermometer.
- Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and baking soda.
- Pour caramel mixture over the popcorn. Fold in until popcorn is evenly coated. Stir in peanuts.
- Pour popcorn onto prepared baking sheet in a single layer.
- Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so.
- Cool completely. Break up and store in an airtight container.
You may also enjoy:
Salted Caramel Twix Rice Krispie Treats Recipe
Positively Awesome Popcorn Recipes from Bloggers I love:
Cinnamon Roll Caramel Corn via Damn Delicious
Cake Batter and White Chocolate Chip Caramel Corn via Averie Cooks
Oreo Peanut Butter Popcorn via Crazy For Crust
Vermont Maple Almond Popcorn via Simply Stacie
Smores Popcorn via Leelalicious
Thanks for linking up my recipe and wow, this looks delish! Pinned!
Thanks so much for pinning Averie!
This popcorn sounds amazing! I adore flavored popcorn so much! 🙂
Thanks so much Jocelyn, it’s perfect for munching!
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I ‘ve found that adding 1 /4 cup molasses instead of the corn syrup gives a little bit richer flavor.
Sounds like a yummy idea, thanks for sharing Gene!