Kettle Corn!

Every fall, we go to a local pumpkin patch called Vala's and pick out a pumpkin.  We also ride the train and the horses.  There are all sorts of things to do and lots of food to eat.  In the past, we have just forgone the food because really, who wants to spend $6 on a smoked turkey leg?!  I could buy a whole turkey for that!

This last fall, my husband talked me into buying a bag of Kettle Corn.  I'd never had it before (I know, I KNOW!) and was grumbling about the exorbitant price the whole time.  Until I tasted it!  The heavens opened up and God himself seemed to whisper in my ear, "I made kettle corn. And I saw that it was good.  Taste and see..."  Or maybe I was hallucinating from my soon-to-be-sugar-induced psychosis.  Either way, dannnnnng!  It was GOOD!  It's salty, it's sweet, it's crunchy, it's buttery, it's heaven in a big long bag and a twistie!  It's even BETTER when you make it at home! Here's how:

Okay, so our cast of characters is as follows:

• 1/4C of White Sugar or Organic Maple Syrup (I've tried both...review below)
• 1/4C Coconut Oil (or other 'vegetable' oil of your choice if you like being poisoned with rancid and cancer-causing chemicals!  Oops, sorry!  Did I say that out loud?  Hmmm....by the looks of where this post is going, I do believe my pms may actually be showing!  And I don't seem to care, ha ha ha ha!)
• 1/2C Pop Corn Kernels
• Real Sea Salt
• Dutch oven or pan with lid
• Wooden Spoon
• Parchment or foil-line baking sheet

Okay, so we are going to start out by putting our pan over high heat and adding our Maple Syrup and Coconut Oil.  I would say stir to 'combine', but they never really do combine.  So, stir until melted.
If using sugar, stir until the sugar dissolves.

 Pour in your pop corn and stir to coat with oil and syrup.

After making a couple of batches of this, I decided it's best to wait until ONE kernel pops before putting on the lid?  Why?  Cuz I said so!  No, really.  If you put the lid on now, you'll get a bunch of condensation on the lid that will drip into your popcorn, making it sticky rather than caramelized and crunchy.  Avoid any flying kernels that have hot, sticky syrup on them and may poke your eye out.  Just kidding.  They start out really little like this.  Sheesh....the DANGER I put myself in to entertain and educate you people!

Using your skankiest hot pads, gently shake the pan back and forth or in a circular motion.  You just want to keep everything moving.  Heat and shake just until you don't hear any more popping. Immediately remove from heat. It burns very quickly as you might be able see on a few kernels in the next picture or two.

At first, I stirred the corn to make sure I got up any remaining caramelization from the bottom of the pan, but it was actually dry.  Apparently, the corn picks up all the melted sugar on it's way up in the air!  I found this to be true when I made it with sugar and with maple syrup.  So, skip the stirring and pour directly onto your parch-lined tray.  My (skanky) potholder is only laying on it because the parch wouldn't stay flat.  It was the end of the roll and kept curling up on me.  :)

Working quickly (it hardens FAST!), gently flatten the corn with your wooden spoon.  This is just so we have a greater surface area on which to sprinkle our Sea Salt!

Now, I am not usually a big salt fan, mostly because I've always heard it is bad for you.  An interesting side note:  When I was about 12, I recall my dad telling me that salt is not good for you.  Being a strong-willed child, I NEVER put salt on anything again until I was about 35!!!  I cooked with the necessary salt as called for in recipes, but I never salted my food, no matter how bland, LOL!  How weird is that?!  But now that I have this awesome Redmond's Real Salt, I find that I'm actually CRAVING it on things!  Must be all the trace minerals in it.  I (now) firmly believe that our bodies tell us what we need.  You crave things for a reason.  The key is knowing how to listen to what it's saying.  However, as a disclaimer, if your body is telling you that you need salt and you eat a bag of Cheetos, you might have a problem, LOL!  Anyway, I liberally salt this with Sea Salt because it makes such a great contrast to the sweet of the syrup/sugar.

I had a feeling that I'd have to break apart these hard clumps, but actually, it tends to fall apart in your hand.

If you can resist eating the whole batch in one sitting, I commend you.  My son and I dove in face first!  Through large muffled mouthfuls of kettle corn, he'd repeat, "This is SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!"  We scarfed down about half of it, then thought....let's take the rest to our neighbor, Jay!  It's a good thing, too, because I firmly believe we would have eaten it all within a matter of minutes!  It's so yummy!  Let it cool completely, then store in a zip top baggie.

I didn't measure this, but if I had to guess, I'd say this makes about 8 cups of popped corn.  I'm not sure if it can be doubled without the worry of burning the bottom.  Update: I looked up online how much popped corn a 1/2 cup of kernels would make and it said 16 cups!  I refuse to believe my son and I ate 8 cups of this within two minutes, but ya never know, lol!  It was that good.

I like that it's super duper cheap and tastes great!  MUCH cheaper than the kettle corn we bought at the pumpkin patch, and even tastier!  It also doesn't have the nasty fake oils and fake butter flavor the one at the pumpkin patch uses.  The coconut oil helps to make it a little healthier as far as a sweetened snack goes.  I bet this would be REALLY good with Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, which would give it a little bit of a coconutty flavor.

Now, my review of using maple syrup as opposed to the sugar.  While both of them were very good and disappeared quite quickly,  I have to say that I really enjoyed the one made with sugar better.  Maybe it's because I didn't burn any of it.  If you decide to try it yourself, let me know what you think!

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