Golden Gaytime Popcorn - copycat recipe!
Total Time
1 hour and 5 minutes
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
55 minutes
Rating
5 out of 5 stars
(8)
Ingredients
12 servings
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil (not required if air popping with a popcorn maker)
- 1/2 cup popping corn
- 100g / 7 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup brown sugar (, tightly packed cup)
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup ( (sub glucose, Note 1)
- 1/2 tsp cooking/ kosher salt
- 2 tsp toffee or caramel essence OR 1 tsp vanilla (substitute) (Note 2)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda (bi-carb) (Note 3)
- 1 1/4 cups dark or white chocolate melts or chips (US: semi-sweet chips), I used ~25% white and 75% dark (Note 4)
- 4 plain sweet biscuits (like Marie Crackers) (Note 5)
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Preparation
Step 1
Popcorn
Step 2
Test oil - Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add a few pieces of popcorn and wait until it pops, then quickly remove.
Step 3
Pop - Add remaining popcorn, elevate off stove to shake and spread corn out evenly. Cover with a lid. Once the popcorn starts popping in earnest, shake the pot gently once. Then crack the lid a tiny bit - let's steam escape for crisper popcorn.
Step 4
Remove from heat when the popping stops (when you can count to 3 between pops) and transfer to a (very!) large bowl.
Step 5
Caramel:
Step 6
Preheat oven to 110°C/230°F (both fan and standard ovens).
Step 7
Combine - Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar, corn syrup and salt. Stir until just combined.
Step 8
Simmer - When it starts to bubble, simmer for 4 minutes - DO NOT STIR!
Step 9
Baking soda "foamy" - Remove from heat then quickly whisk in caramel (toffee or vanilla) and baking soda. When you stop whisking, the caramel will foam and increase in volume.
Step 10
Coat popcorn - Quickly pour straight over popcorn, toss until caramel cools and starts to harden.
Step 11
Baking to crisp caramel coating:
Step 12
Spread popcorn on 2 large paper lined baking trays.
Step 13
Bake for 45 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes or so. Caramel will remelt for the first 2-3 tosses - tossing coats popcorn more evenly with caramel. (If using glucose, bake further 15 minutes).
Step 14
Cool - Remove from oven, leave to cool on the tray for 20 minutes. Then break up the popcorn - no need to be too pedantic, clumps are great!
Step 15
Drizzle and crumbs
Step 16
Crumbs - Place biscuits in a ziplock bag and bash into crumbs.
Step 17
Melt chocolate - Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl and microwave in 30 second increments on high, stirring in between, until melted and smooth - about 1 1/2 minutes. (If doing a small amount of white chocolate, reduce to 20 second increments).
Step 18
Piping bags - Transfer chocolate into a piping bag. Use scissors to snip a small opening at the tip. (Alternative: just drizzle with a spoon).
Step 19
Drizzle & crumb - Push the popcorn together but in a single layer. Drizzle criss-cross (or any pattern!) all over the popcorn. Sprinkle with biscuits crumbs while the chocolate is wet so it sticks.
Step 20
Fridge - Refrigerate for 15 minutes until the chocolate is firm. Gently break popcorn into pieces. EAT!
Step 21
Store in an airtight container in a cool place. Stays crisp for at least a week. Our test batches never lasted any longer!
Step 22
Save recipe for the next time?
