Butter Caramel Puff Corn – No Kernels, No Hulls!
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I posted my caramel corn recipe on Facebook yesterday (click here to get it if you’d like) and realized that I’d never posted my Butter Caramel Puff Corn recipe on here! Oh mercy, where has my head been? This stuff is absolutely divine, with a capital “D”. It has a delicious honey taste to it (regardless of which ingredient options you use) and none of the pesky hulls or kernels you encounter with traditional caramel corn. Also, since you buy the puff corn in a bag, there is no popping popcorn in preparation for making it. Just walk into your kitchen, put some stuff in a pot, pour the puff corn in a baking dish and proceed as directed!
Personally, I like this better than caramel corn because it is easier on your teeth.
Oh but Christy, have we really got to the age where we have to worry about whether or not something is hard on our teeth? I don’t know about you but I sure have!
Warning: make this early in the day because you may end up eating it all yourself and if you do, you’ll need plenty of time to hide the evidence that you made it and didn’t share.
Recipe Ingredients:
Corn Syrup or Honey
Light Brown Sugar (the world won’t end if you use dark though)
Butter
A wee bit of Baking Soda.
and Puff corn…
This isn’t popcorn. There are no hulls or anything and it is baked. It sure is good!
What Kind of Puff Corn Do I Get?
Sometimes puff corn can be hard to find, though. My Wal Mart carries the cheese flavored kind but not the butter flavored kind you need for this recipe. I got these are Krogers for $2 a bag. Each bag is 3.5 ounces, so you end up with 10.5 ounces, which is what you need for a single recipe of Caramel Puff Corn. However, Mama’s Foodland carries bags twice this size for the same price so maybe you’ll get lucky and find the bigger, cheaper bags. They’re all good. Check online at our grocer too.
By the way, if you’ve never looked for this before, it is usually near the cheetos and such.
See? Oven baked, no hulls, no kernels.
Easy on your teeth 🙂
Place brown sugar, butter, and honey or corn syrup in a medium sauce pot.
Stir constantly while bringing to a boil over medium high heat.
Once boiling, allow to boil for one minute.
Remove from heat and stir in baking soda.
This will get it kind of foamy.
Stir until it’s all dissolved in there, which will just take a minute.
Spray a large roasting pan or two 9×13 baking dishes with cooking spray.
Divide puff corn among the two dishes.
Pour topping evenly over all of the puff corn.
Stir really well until it is well coated.
Place in 250 degree oven and bake for 45 minutes, stirring really well every 15 minutes.
Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.
Ingredients
- 3 Bags Butter Flavored Puff Corn 3.5 ounces each
- 2 sticks butter 1 cup
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup or honey
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Spray a large roasting pan or two 9x13 pans with cooking spray. Divide puff corn up between two dishes.
- In medium sauce pot, combine butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup (or honey). Stir constantly while bringing to a boil over medium high heat. Once boiling, allow to boil for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Mixture will foam. Stir until well blended.
- Pour over puff corn. Stir really well to coat. Bake at 250 for 45 minutes, stirring well every 15 minutes. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container.
- If you eat it all before everyone gets home, just make sure you clean up the kitchen really good so they never knew it existed. Make double next time so you can share 🙂
Nutrition
“When tempted to fight fire with fire,
remember that the fire department usually uses water.”
~Unknown
🙂
can you use corn puff cereal.
I’ve never tried that so you’ll be adventuring on your own, I’m afraid. Puff corn cereal tends to get soggy and is already pretty sweet but it will be interesting to see if it works so please report back!
A very similar recipe was given to me years ago to make in microwave. I can make a batch in 10 min or less.
2 bags hull-less puff corn
1 stick butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white syrup
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 large brown paper bag or 1 turkey size browning bag
Spray bag liberally with non-stick cooking spray. pour corn into bag set aside
mix & bring to a boil remaining ingredient except soda, boil 1-2 min, rapidly stir the soda into the hot syrup & when frothy pour over corn, shake the bag to evenly distribute the syrup over the corn close top of bag but do not seal microwave 1.5 min on med high take out bag & shake well, return to microwave for 1.5 min on med high. pour hot corn out on parchment paper or just tear the bag open allow to cool, store in air tight container.
the above is the recipe I use but I bet your recipe can be prepared the same way. Done in 10 min.
I made this for my Christmas Eve goodie table and it was a big hit. Everyone just loved it. I found the 8 oz. bags of the butter flavored puffed corn at Aldi’s and it was $1.69 a bag. I don’t think they carry the butter flavored puffed corn all the time, but they had it last week. They also carry the peanut butter flavored puffed corn from time to time and I am going to try this recipe with that flavor the next time they have it. I will let you know how that turns out but it should be delicious too. Thanks for the recipe.
Has anybody made this with margarine? Butter is just getting soooo expensive!
I know just what you mean and margarine works fine 🙂 P.S. FINALLY someone gets it! lol
Christy, it’s not that we don’t get it, it’s more we are not willing to use a plastic substittute for butter. My mother refused to use margerine no matter how poor we were she said it wasn’t good for you, turned out she was right, now its a known bad for you item. So no matter how expensive it gets the question is how much is your health worth.
I understand what you are saying and certainly do not fault your point of view. However, most important to me is that folks make the best decision they can for them and I just don’t want anyone to ever feel shamed on Southern Plate for saving the three dollars if they need it for something else and getting margarine instead. We are truly blessed but there are some people who are really doing good to be able to put food on the table and buying butter is a luxury that would cause their children to go to bed hungry at night. This is the exact position my mother was in when we were little kids so I am especially sensitive to it. She did the best she could but there were still times when there simply wasn’t enough food. We all do the best we can with what we have and where we are – and we have to understand that we can only truly know what it is like to live our own lives.
I buy my baking soda (for cooking/baking) at Trader Joe’s. It comes in a can with a plastic lid to seal in between uses. I don’t remember the cost, but it wasn’t outrageous and may have even been more than reasonable. If you have a Trader Joe’s, check it out!
Nearest one is two and a half hours away but I went once and loved it!
Do you think this would work with adding peanuts? Going to try it as is, but thought about another batch with nuts would be good, too.
It would be wonderful with the addition of peanuts!
OMG!!!….Christy thank you for sharing this recipe I was scared at first but I made it anyway. I was having my Social Club monthly meeting at my place and wanted a sweet snack and this was a MAJOR HIT with my social club sisters. I shared it again with family and co-workers and it has not failed yet. So again THANK YOU for sharing. I also have a hard time finding the butter flavor so I contacted Frito Lay for more. Unfortunately it can’t be shipped directly to me…so therefore I searched and drove 10 miles out to get Chester Butter flavored puffcorn…its worth it for the recipe.
Thank You
Diana
o”-“o
I am so glad you were able to find the puffcorn and that the recipe has been such a big hit for you!!!