Caramel sauces.
I saw this recipe right before Halloween and decided to make it that afternoon for us to have while we watched Linus wait for the Great Pumpkin. The picture looked so good, like Cracker Jack. I even added some peanuts. I followed the recipe precisely (yes, really!) and poured everything out onto two baking pans lined with parchment paper.
Big disappointment. The syrup was thick and never smoothly coated the popcorn. The texture was rather grainy, too. This isn't to say the popcorn wasn't rapidly devoured--we're talking butter & brown sugar, after all.
But I remembered another recipe I'd tried a while back, also without complete success. The main problem there was that I didn't make the sauce far enough in advance, and poured screaming hot sauce over fresh popcorn, "melting" the popcorn. I did remember that the leftover sauce itself was pretty good, especially over pancakes the next day.
So I made that one again this afternoon. I used all butter instead of a combo of "healthy" butter & olive oil, but other than that, I did follow the recipe precisely. At first, I worried. The butter & brown sugar looked exactly like the Halloween debacle. Then I poured in the apple juice & cornstarch, and it magically turned into a sauce. Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummy.
When I came back to it a few hours later (I left it at room temp in a glass container), it had separated into two layers, but they were easily stirred back together. I made the popcorn tonight, and poured it over, and it worked really well. It wasn't dry like Cracker Jack, but the taste & texture were great.
I mentioned how much better I liked this one than the Halloween one, and Sarah said she had liked that one better. "It had peanuts." Well, if you don't take the peanuts into account? "I still liked it better." Maybe next time I'll try baking it after to dry it out a little, like the first recipe, but that Grandbaby Cakes wins this one hands down as far as I'm concerned.
