Preschool Bake Sale

You may remember me complaining a few days ago about the store bought baked goods needed for the cake walk at Elizabeth's school. It turned out to be not so bad. I ended up getting a lot of donations from grocery stores like Bashas', Fry's, Safeway, and Fresh & Easy. I did my part...even if it didn't require my stand mixer or oven.

Thankfully, Matthew's preschool isn't as strict as the elementary school so we could donate homemade baked goods for the bake sale at their fall festival. I made a half batch of caramel corn (I was short on time). It yielded only 8 bags worth, but it was better than nothing. It was a unique item at the sale, and people grabbed them up. When I visited the booth about halfway through the festival, they were all gone.

This is Brian's grandmother's recipe. I like to add raw almonds to the popcorn and then pour on the caramel mixture and bake. The almonds cut the sweetness of the caramel corn. Unfortunately, the school is nut-free so I had to skip that step. Oh well. Christmas is coming soon.

GiGi's Baked Caramel Corn
1 c butter or margarine
2 c light brown sugar
1/2 c light corn syrup
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t vanilla
6 quarts popped corn (usually comes from 1 cup unpopped popcorn--I air pop it)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Melt butter and stir in brown sugar, syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in baking soda and vanilla. Gradually pour over corn. Mix gently. Turn into a large shallow baking or roasting pan (or two...or three) and bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from oven, cool completely, and break apart. Store in an airtight container.