Culinary Babe Moose Munch

Happy New Year

Being a culinary rebel, for a Christmas Cookie Party I made carmel corn with chocolate drizzle, better known by Harry and David fans as Moose Munch. It was so yummy that I made another batch for my daughter to take to the Bay Area as a New Year's Eve hostess gift. 

For a throughly decedent treat, I melted bulk milk chocolate chunks from the local chocolatier and drizzled the melted chocolate over the finished carmel corn. 

Cooling Moose Munch

I adapted the recipe from somethingswanky.com, which is reproduced below.

{DIY} Moose Munch
Recipe inspired by: Shanna Keaton 
Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp. butter
• 3 tbsp. corn syrup
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 - 2 bags popped popcorn
• chocolate chips, nuts, M&Ms, etc. to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300º.
2. Remove all unpopped kernels from popcorn and pour popcorn into a bowl.
3. Meanwhile: Combine butter, corn syrup, and brown sugar over medium heat. Cook and stir until mixture boils. Continue boiling at a stead rate for 4 minutes without stirring.
4. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla.
5. Pour caramel over popcorn and stir to coat.
6. Spread onto greased cookie sheet or Silpat and bake for 10-15 minutes (10 for chewy, 15 for crunchy).
7. Remove from oven and add toppings. Let cool briefly before returning to bowl.

Ready, set, chomp!

I made my popcorn on the stove using the old Ziffy Pop recipe. One batch is equal to amount of popcorn for the above recipe.  

3TBS vegetable oil

1/3 cup popcorn kernels

1/2 tsp salt

Put oil in a medium sized sauce pan and heat with 3 kernels of popcorn and 1/2 tsp salt. When the kernels pop, pour the remaining kernels into the pan and remove from the heat for 30 seconds. Return the pan to medium heat, cover, and, when the kernels begin to pop, shake the pan over the burner to prevent scorching the popped corn. When the popping has stopped, pour the popped corn into a large bowl. 

Removing the pan, returns the oil to correct temperpature, while evenly heating the kernels so there are no unpopped kernels left in the pan.