Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Cafe--Caramel Popcorn

The COVID-19 lifestyle leaves a bit to be desired, truth be told.  I don’t mind the staying home part one bit.  As an extremely introverted person, can I say that I’ve been preparing my whole life for this?  

However, the weather is still a bit too cold to go out and garden for many of us.  There’s a whole lot of Netflixing going on.  And the requisite popcorn accompaniment works 95% of the time.  But once in a while, a body wants to shake things up a bit.  

That’s where caramel corn comes in.  I was a little pre-occupied, so I made it with butter, instead of using coconut oil.  The regular butter version was fine; the locusts… umm, kids, devoured it immediately.  

However, I was really curious as to whether using coconut oil instead of butter would work.  I bet you are too, now.

Original recipe	Coconut oil	Coconut oil + powdered butter
16 cups popped popcorn	16 cups popped popcorn	16 cups popped popcorn
1 cup brown sugar	1 cup brown sugar	1 cup brown sugar
½ cup butter	½ cup – 1 tablespoon coconut oil*	½ – 1 tablespoon coconut oil*
	1 tablespoon water	1 tablespoon water
		¼ cup powdered butter
¼ cup corn syrup	¼ cup corn syrup	¼ cup corn syrup
½ teaspoon salt	½ teaspoon salt	½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda	½ teaspoon baking soda	½ teaspoon baking soda

·       Butter is 16% water.  Coconut oil has no water, so to compensate, I replaced 1 tablespoon of coconut oil with 1 tablespoon of water.  I’m not sure it made a difference in this recipe. 

Combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and butter (or coconut oil or coconut oil and powdered butter) in a two-quart saucepan, bring to a boil, and cook and stir for two minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the baking soda.  Immediately pour caramel syrup over the popped popcorn and stir to combine. 

Comments on the coconut oil versions:

The coconut oil version does not cook up the same.  I kept stirring and waiting for the mixture to combine fully on the stove, and it never did.  Some oil just would not incorporate into the caramel, and it’s possible that I overcooked the caramel trying to get the oil to incorporate fully.  So when I poured it on the popcorn, it cooled pretty quickly and I didn’t get it to coat the popcorn well.  

However!!  According to the locusts, it tasted just fine, though it was noted that the color was a little darker.

But I wasn’t quite satisfied.  I really wanted coconut oil to work perfectly.  So I tried again with adding ¼ cup of butter powder to the coconut oil.  That didn’t work, either.  The coconut oil still didn’t fully incorporate into the caramel.  But the color looked better and it poured and coated the popcorn really well.  Perhaps because I didn't cook it as long.  Regardless, it still tasted good.  Really good.

In case you are wondering, yes, as a matter of fact, my stomach does hurt from eating so much caramel corn.