Movie night caramel popcorn

Ingredients

• spray oil
• 10 cups popped popcorn
• 2 cups mix-ins (pretzels, salted/spiced nuts, coconut flakes, bagel chips, Cheerios/rice crispies, potato chips etc)
• 125 g butter, diced
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup golden syrup or maple syrup
• ½ tsp bicarb soda
• salt flakes, to finish

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 100˚C fan-forced and coat a rimmed baking sheet with spray oil.
2. In an extra-large mixing bowl, combine the popped popcorn with your chosen mix-ins and stir to combine.
3. Melt the butter in a heavy-based medium saucepan. Stir in the brown sugar and golden syrup and cook on medium-high until the mixture begins to boil, about 3 minutes. Carefully stir, then boil for a further 4 minutes.
4. Add the bicarb soda to the saucepan and stir until it begins to foam. Carefully pour the caramel over the popcorn mixture in the bowl.
5. Toss the caramel through the popcorn – use caution as the caramel is extremely hot! Use an oil-sprayed spatula to help (this will make it easier to clean).
6. Pour the caramel popcorn mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with salt flakes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Photography by Kitti Gould.

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