I made that!

After 1 year of being a certified metal mouth, my friend Tessa got her braces  off yesterday. Since this is OBVIOUSLY a cause for celebration, we are celebrating. Tonight. With 2 things gooey and forbidden to the contemporary braceface: Candied apples and homemade cracker jack popcorn.

I got a little excited about the caramel apples, even made a special trip to Flax for supplies (Why don’t grocery stores sell popsicle sticks?). I found some festive colored sticks and the rest is history. As in, I jabbed them into some apples.

Then I made a caramel sauce with yummy things like molasses, maple syrup and lots of sugar and butter.

After the sauce cooled down a bit, I dunked the apples.

It was harder than it sounds. There was some serious temperature regulating that did not happen. Too hot and it all slides right off the apple, but too cool and it looks all thick and gloppy (I gave that one to John, he didn’t mind). I dipped them in crushed pistachios too, but most of them slid into a little puddle at the bottom. Kind a little nut stand to prop the apples up. In the end I did get a few that looked halfway decent.

Yes, it’s a ribbon. Got that at Flax too.

After that it was on to some more stickiness. Crackerjack is super easy to make, and I think this one will go into the regular rotation.

I could’t remember what it even tasted like, but when I popped some of these in my mouth it was like “wow – THAT”S what it tastes like!” Highly recommend making a batch for yourself.

RECIPE:

1/2 cup unpopped popcorn

4 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 cup shelled peanuts

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

2 tablespoons molasses

1 teaspoon salt

– Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

– Put the popcorn in a brown paper bag, pour in 4 teaspoons of olive oil and close the bag with a piece of tape. Heat it on high in the microwave for 3 minutes. Put it in a bowl.

– Add the peanuts to the popcorn.

– For the caramel, heat the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, molasses and salt in a pan on the stove until the butter is melted and the sugar is smooth and not grainy anymore. Pour this mixture over the popcorn and peanuts, stirring well. Pour it all onto a cookie sheet and place in oven for 10-12 minutes, stirring once or twice. It will be gooey and wet.

– Let air dry until crisp, then store in an airtight container until ready to be devoured.