Oh Nuts Blog

Caramel Popcorn: is there anything it cannot do?

In need of a treat for a party? Everyone loves caramel popcorn.
Hosting a movie night? Forget buttered popcorn and serve caramel corn instead.
Midnight munchies? Caramel popcorn to the rescue!
Picnic or potluck coming up? You guessed it...caramel popcorn!

Crunchy, sweet caramel popcorn is light enough to be enjoyed as a snack, but full of enough butter, sugary, nutty goodness to be a satisfying dessert. This recipe uses salted cashews to add a buttery, nutty flavor and salty crunch to the sweet popcorn. Give it a go and see how many different ways you can use caramel popcorn!

Cashew Caramel Popcorn
yield: about 12 cups caramel popcorn

• 1 3.5-oz package microwave popcorn (yield about 10 cups. It's best if it's not a strong, buttery flavor)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 6 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups salted cashews (or you can substitute peanuts or almonds)
• A candy thermometer

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F, and line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. Spray the sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Start by chopping the salted cashews coarsely, so that they're about the size of peanuts. They don't have to be in small pieces, but whole cashews are a little overwhelming in the popcorn mix, so I like to give them a little choppity-chop.

Pop the microwave popcorn and pour it into a large greased bowl. You're going to be doing lots of stirring, and adding other ingredients, so the bigger the bowl, the better!

Next, let's make some caramel! Combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, salt, and water in a medium saucepan.

Place the saucepan over medium heat and stir until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Insert a candy thermometer.

Continue to cook the candy, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 250 degrees F on the candy thermometer. This will probably take 3-6 minutes depending on your stove and the size of your pot.Watch the caramel carefully so it doesn't overcook.

As soon as the temperature reaches 250 degrees, pull the pan from the heat. Add the vanilla extract and the baking soda, and whisk until everything is well-combined.

After a moment or two of whisking, the baking soda will start to react and the caramel will foam up, and turn a lighter, opaque color with lots of bubbles. When you see this, it's ready to be poured on the popcorn. This is what you've been waiting for! Carpe diem!

Pour the caramel over the popcorn and stir with a heatproof spatula until all of the kernels are coated.

Add the chopped cashews and stir until they're mixed into the popcorn and are also coated with a layer of caramel.

Spread the popcorn out on the prepared pan. Use the biggest sheet tray you have, so that it is in a single, even layer. If it is layered too thick, it won't cook evenly and you'll have patches of caramel popcorn that are burned, while other sections are underdone. If you need to, use two sheet trays to get the popcorn in a single layer.

Bake the cashew caramel popcorn in the 250 degree oven for about an hour. Stir it after every 15 minutes, so that the edges don't brown too quickly. You will notice that as it cooks, the caramel re-melts and becomes liquid again, so when you stir it, you're redistributing it and making sure that every kernel is covered with caramel. As it continues to cook it will become a darker golden brown, the caramel will get thicker, and it will be very, very fragrant. Yum!

After an hour, take the popcorn from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack for half an hour. Gently break up any large clumps of popcorn with your hands, and once it's completely cool, your cashew caramel popcorn is ready to be enjoyed!

If you want to be really devilish, you can drizzle the popcorn with melted chocolate, but I think it's darn near perfect the way it is. Store Cashew Caramel Popcorn in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

You've probably made a batch or two of cookies in your day. Chocolate chip. Peanut butter. Oatmeal raisin. The usual. Maybe even rugelach, you awesome baker, you. But what about Fig Newtons?

That's right, Fig Newtons, the unsung hero of the cookie aisle. I love them because they're chock-full of figgy goodness, letting me believe that they're much, much healthier than they actually are, and thus, are a good snacking option. This recipe for homemade Fig Newtons features a flavorful homemade fig preserve inside a buttery, orange-scented cookie. They're kind of outrageous. And they're really moderately somewhat good for you. Let's go!

Homemade Fig Newtons
yield: about 30 cookies
For the filling:

• 1 generous cup Calimyrna dried figs
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• zest of 1/2 grated orange

• 4 oz (8 tbsp) softened butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• zest of 1/2 grated orange
• 1 egg white, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour

Both parts of this recipe require extensive down-time, so make sure you plan ahead and leave enough time for cooking and chilling. To make the dough, start by combining the butter and 1/2 cup of sugar in the bowl of stand mixer (or use a large bowl and a hand mixer.) Beat them together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add the egg white, the grated zest of half an orange, and the vanilla extract, and beat everything together until you have a silky smooth mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters. Add the flour, and mix on low until everything is mixed together and there are no streaks of flour remaining.

When you're finished, you should have a soft dough similar to a sugar cookie dough. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate it until it's firm enough to roll, for about two hours.

While you wait for the dough to chill, it's time to get figgy with it! (Yes, I've been dying to use that joke this whole time.) Take those beautiful moist Calimyrna dried figs and chop them up into small pieces.

Combine the chopped figs, water, apple juice, and 1/4 cup of sugar in a medium saucepan, and bring it to a boil over medium heat. After it starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer it until the figs are soft and practically disintegrating, anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 hours. Stir the figs occasionally so they don't scorch on the bottom of the pan.

When the figs are done, most of the water will have cooked off and they will have the consistency of a thick, sticky jam. Isn't this already starting to look like the filling inside a Fig Newton? Cool the fig mixture at room temperature or in the microwave.

Transfer the fig mixture to a food processor or blender, and add the grated zest of half an orange. Blend until you have a smooth paste.

Now it's time to bring together the two halves of our Fig Newton puzzle! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Take your chilled dough from the refrigerator and dust a work surface and rolling pin with flour. The dough will get sticky as it warms up, so it's best to do this quickly and avoid adding any more flour than necessary. Roll the dough out into a very thin rectangle, about 16 inches long by 12 inches high. Remember how thin the cookie part of a Fig Newton is? Yeah, it's a wee little layer. That's what we're going for.

Now take a handy-dandy ruler--or just use your eyeballs and estimate--and cut your dough into 4 strips, so that you end up with 4 long thin rectangles 4 inches across and 12 inches high.

Take about a quarter of the fig mixture and spread it along the center of one of the strips of dough. Gently fold one side over the fig mixture, then fold the second side over the first, so that you are left with a long tube of dough enclosing the fig filling. Repeat until all four dough strips have been filled and folded.

Gently (gently!) transfer the strips of dough to a parchment-covered baking sheet. I found it was easiest to do this by sliding them onto a long metal spatula, but even a large chef's knife might work for his purpose. You can either cut them into cookies before or after baking--I prefer before, because I think it's a little easier to get clean cuts that way, but either way works fine.

Bake the cookies in the 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes, until they're puffed and golden brown around the edges.

I always hate it when people say this about baked goods, but it must be said: these cookies are even better the next day! Fresh from the oven, the cookie layer is a little crispy, more like a shortbread. But after they've had time to mellow, it softens, and the cookies and figs melt into each other a little more, and they are deee-licious.

Now that you have the basic Fig Newtons recipe, try making other variations--what about adding some chopped apple in with the figs? Or raspberries? Or ginger? You can do it all! (But not together, please.) Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Sherry Yard. Text and images (c) Elizabeth LaBau