Pop Star Crispy Treats

Christmas treats...yum, yum, yum! This year I made caramel popcorn on my own. I helped some roommates back in my college days to make some once. So I figured it wouldn't be so bad doing it on my own. I'm glad I have a huge bowl, because it makes a lot. I used the recipe from allrecipes.com.

Caramel Popcorn

1 cup butter 

2 cups brown sugar 

1/2 cup corn syrup  

1 teaspoon salt 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
5 quarts popped popcorn 

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (95 degrees C). Place popcorn in a very large bowl. 

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat. 

Place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

I baked the popcorn for a little over 30 minutes because I like my caramel a little softer and it turned out excellent.

In addition to the popcorn, I made rice crispy treats in the shape of stars, and....

 Ginger bread men. I think they looked pretty cool and it was less work than the real cookie.