Caramel Popcorn: The Magic of Sugar and Fat

Today I made some salted caramel popcorn. It's one of those great foods you can indulge in (since it's coated in caramel) while convincing yourself you're making good life choices (popcorn's full of fibre). I love this recipe because it's probably the easiest way to make caramel and requires so little maintenance once it's in the oven. Not to mention, you don't need a candy thermometer, just a pair of eyes and some colour vision. It's not as hard as it sounds, I promise.

We'll start off with our ingredients:

Some people have a matching set of plates and bowls. I do not. There's also salt, baking soda and cream of tartar in this recipe, but those are barely visible on white plates.

First, we've got some popcorn. You can either air pop it if you have the equipment and/or skills, or microwave it like my lazy ass does. I buy the kind that's just a bit of oil and salt (no butter flavour) so I can use it for this purpose, or just butter it myself and sprinkle with whatever seasoning I'm in the mood for as a snack. Pop this before starting the caramel and remove all the unpopped kernels. No one needs a shattered tooth. 

Then we're looking at brown sugar. Not sure if it counts as cheating since we're not using white sugar, but this is more flavourful to start with and I'm not getting ambitious today.

I don't think I have to explain that butter's delicious. But it's also a vital part of this snack, and not just for flavour. 

The fat in the butter interrupts the crystallization of the sugars in our caramel, forcing the sugar to crystallize in smaller bits. This gives the caramel some crunch without making it shard-like.

The milk proteins in the butter interact with the sugar and undergo the Maillard reaction, providing some of the deep golden brown colour and complex flavour. The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction that takes place between sugar molecules and amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. It results in a bunch of flavour compounds being generated; their profile is specific to the food.

(There are also pyrolysis reactions that occur with just the sugar at high temperatures, but we might not be getting much of that. I didn't use a candy thermometer, so I'm not sure if the caramel reached high enough temperatures). 

They're both nonenzymatic browning reactions (they don't need any catalysts to help them along), and they're both delicious. Think caramelized onions or a perfectly grilled steak.

Start off by preheating the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and getting a medium saucepan on the stove. Medium heat. 

Cutting the butter into cubes helps distract you from how much is going into this recipe.

Melt the butter with the brown sugar and a bit of salt. We're going for a slushy, lava-like consistency. When it gets to that point, add some agave nectar and either cream of tartar or vinegar. 

This picture is crooked because I was holding the spatula in my other hand.

The agave nectar is the syrup part of the recipe. You could also use corn syrup, but I use agave because my family has a Costco membership so now I have a huge bottle at my disposal. 

The point of the syrup is to introduce more monosaccharides (basic sugars like glucose and fructose) that contribute to the viscosity (or thickness).

There are already monosaccharides from the brown sugar, present as part of polysaccharides, which are bigger chains like sucrose. Sucrose is a disaccharide (a polysaccharide made of just two monosaccharides stuck together) composed of glucose and fructose bound together, and some will get split back up into simpler monosaccharides when we add acid.

Adding an acid like cream of tartar or vinegar turns the sugar from regular ol' sucrose to invert sugar, splitting up that polysaccharide. Having both the syrup and the acid help us refine the sugar crystals we're forming, forcing them to form smaller clumps, but strengthening the overall structure.

Let the mixture bubble for a few minutes, stirring frequently. You DO NOT want burnt caramel. Once you burn it, you basically have to start over because everything gets bitter. Not to mention, it sticks to your pot.

It's like a hot tub that you never want to be in. But it smells delicious.

Once the mixture darkens slightly and looks a bit like this, turn off the heat. Add baking soda and mix gently. It'll bubble up because the caramel's acidic, and that helps us in two ways. It makes it easier to spread over a lot of popcorn, because there's more volume, and the bubbles contribute to its lightness, so the popcorn doesn't get rock hard. 

When you add the baking soda, it bubbles up and doubles in size. Kind of like a science fair dessert volcano.

Pour this over the popcorn and mix until everything is lightly coated. You might want to split it up into a bowl and a baking tray (lined with parchment paper) so you don't drop popcorn everywhere. Be careful, this stuff is crazy hot and WILL burn you if it gets on your skin. Respect the caramel.

One hand pouring shot = nearly dropping my phone.

Spread the sticky popcorn over two baking sheets lined with parchment (again, no one wants to scrub caramel). Stick those trays in the oven  for half an hour, then mix everything up, then bake for another half hour.

This picture quality brought to you by my speckled oven window.

Take the popcorn out, wait for it to cool, then enjoy! You might want to keep some floss on hand.

Slap that in some mason jars and BAM! You've got a holiday gift.

Best enjoyed by grabbing two handfuls and forcing them into your face as you stress about your upcoming midterm.


Salted Caramel Popcorn

12 cups popped popcorn (about 150g, or 2 regular sized plain bags)*
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 tsp salt
Splash of white vinegar (or pinch of cream of tartar)
1/2 tsp baking soda

Pop your popcorn and remove unpopped kernels. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking trays with parchment paper and divide popcorn between them. You can use a large bowl if that's easier for you to mix the popcorn.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter with the brown sugar and salt. When everything is wet and runny, add agave nectar and vinegar (or cream of tartar). Let that bubble for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
Remove saucepan from heat. Add baking soda and mix gently. Spread this over the popcorn and mix until it's all coated, then bake for half an hour. Remove trays from oven, mix everything up again, then bake for another half an hour.

Let cool before eating or packing into an airtight container.  

*Don't use buttered popcorn. It'll taste weird, be soggy, and everything might be terrible. You can adjust the ratio of caramel to popcorn according to preference; the more caramel you use, the longer the popcorn will keep. I use President's Choice Blue Menu Natural Flavour. But really? Natural flavour? Don't try to jazz up "plain".

This recipe is based on one from sallysbakingaddiction.com. Check it out. She's great, even though she loves peanut butter. 

Further reading:

Volatile Compounds in Foods and Beverages by Henk Maarse
Understanding Food- Principles and Preparation by Amy Brown

Is this what the kids are doing these days?

I think I missed the angsty teenage phase of having a blog. As a result, I have absolutely no experience writing for, editing, or managing a blog. Oh well!

A little about me:

I'm a first year Masters student studying neuroscience. My area of research is stress-related eating and food craving, and it's worth noting that I'm extremely guilty of both of those things. I have a couple of pretty major food allergies, which have forced me to learn how to cook (at the very least, I can feed myself on things other than boiled spaghetti and sauce from a can) but which also have a pesky little habit of trying to kill me. I spend too much time watching cartoons. I'm really bad at math.

Something I loved as a kid was learning about the world. Not necessarily in a social or political sense, but I was definitely that annoying kid who kept asking questions about why the sky was blue or why grass is green, and who made a mess with cornstarch slime and food colouring. I'm hoping to convey that love with this blog, which will hopefully be not only a place to dump cooking/baking photos, but also a place for the concepts related to how those things work. But I guess we'll see. 

Right now, I'm trying to grow fruits/vegetables/herbs at home, which has very little to do with eco-friendliness and sustainability, and very much to do with consistently forgetting to pick up ingredients at the grocery store and having child-like entertainment requirements.

I didn't plan this out very well, so here's a picture of some cookies I made last Christmas:

They were chocolate crinkles and almond linzer cookies with homemade strawberry jam, and they were delicious.

Hopefully, I'll have a better plan going into the next post.

Until next time!

S