"If you love bacon, this is the caramel popcorn recipe you have been looking for! Be warned, once you start snacking, it's difficult to stop. Butter can be halved for a leaner dessert."
2Arrange bacon slices close together and slightly overlapping onto the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle bacon slices evenly with maple syrup.
3Place the baking sheet in the cold oven; set temperature to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Bake until bacon is crisp, about 20 minutes.
4Transfer bacon slices to a paper towel-lined plate to cool. Crumble cooled bacon.
5Reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil.
6Lightly mix popcorn, rice cereal, wheat cereal, peanuts, pretzels, and crumbled bacon together in a large bowl. Transfer to the prepared baking sheets.
7Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat; mix brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt into the melted butter. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to boil. Boil mixture, without stirring, for 4 minutes.
8Place popcorn mixture in the preheated oven to warm.
9Remove the butter mixture from heat and mix in vanilla extract and baking soda until caramel begins to foam. Drizzle caramel in a thin stream over popcorn mixture, tossing to evenly coat.
10Bake caramel corn in the oven, stirring every 15 minutes, until caramel coating is set, 1 hour. Let caramel corn cool completely before breaking into pieces.
Footnotes
Cook's Note:
I recommend using non-microwave popcorn. If you must use microwave popcorn, try to remove the unpopped seeds. Place popcorn into a roaster. I prefer using two large tinfoil roasters (the disposable kind) and splitting the corn between the two, it makes mixing easier later on.
Tip
Aluminum foil helps keep food moist, ensures it cooks evenly, keeps leftovers fresh, and makes clean-up easy.
Ingredients
6 servings
1247 cals
1 (12 ounce) package thick-cut bacon
1/2 cup real maple syrup
3 quarts popped popcorn
2 cups crispy rice cereal squares (such as Rice Chex®)
2 cups crispy wheat cereal squares (such as Wheat Chex®)