My kids love popcorn.  It’s one of those things that I just never think of when it comes to snack time- but I really should! It’s delicious in so many guises, and it’s relatively healthful as well.  The other day, I had a hankering for caramel popcorn loaded with nuts, but since I didn’t have the nuts, I decided making the caramel corn would not be as good.  Of course, it turned out to be a moot point anyway, as I was out of popcorn kernels and I wasn’t in the mood to leave the house.  But then I saw the box of microwave popcorn, and began wondering, and before I knew it, I was concocting a little something on my stove.

I had read once upon a time that microwave popcorn would not work well for a caramel corn.  I believe it’s because microwave corn is specifically bred to be light and tender, and mixing it with the caramel would break the kernels into teeny tiny pieces.  But I so wanted to try it! I also thought that using a butter flavored corn would really play well with a sweet-salty combo, and in the end, I decided to try doing flavored popcorn instead of caramel corn.  Since it’s Halloween week, I wanted to use an orange coloring, and what could be better than orange flavoring?  Even better, I used a combination of orange and vanilla for a creamsicle variation.

For the orange flavoring, I used orange oil.  I purchase this at my local cake decorating supply store, but I have seen it at places like World Market, Williams-Sonoma, and other kitchen supply stores.  You could probably use an extract, but I like the oil, as it infuses much more flavor with less of it. Four drops was all I needed for the perfect smattering of orange flavor.  The sugar mixture cooked up very quickly, and as it was cooking, I was looking through my other candy oils, trying to determine what else would work for a flavored popcorn.  I’ve seen those stands in the mall that sell neon popcorn, and I had no idea how easy the whole process would be to make it!  Overall, I have to say the Orange Creamsicle Popcorn turned out fantastically well.  The microwave popcorn did hold up just fine, and I really liked the salty element it brought to the party.  If you don’t care to use microwave popcorn, you could certainly use air-popped kernels, but do add a smattering of salt to your sugar mixture- maybe start with 1/4 teaspoon for 10 cups of popcorn and see how that does. The kids gobbled this up, and before long we were looking at the bottom of an empty bowl.  We’re going to have to make this one again. If you’d rather try a standard caramel corn, I have an excellent recipe right here.

Orange-Creamsicle Popcorn

1 bag butter-flavored microwave popcorn, popped

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 drops orange oil

6 drops yellow food coloring

1 drop red food coloring

Preheat the oven to 250ºF, and spray a 10×15×2 baking sheet with cooking spray, set aside.

Pour the popcorn into a large mixing bowl, picking out any unpopped kernels.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter, sugar, and corn syrup over medium heat.  Stir constantly until the mixture comes to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 7 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, orange oil, and food colorings.  Drizzle the sugar syrup over the popcorn kernels, tossing gently to coat the kernels.  Pour the popcorn onto the prepared baking sheet.

Bake at 250ºF for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  Spread out on aluminum foil to cool, if desired.  Stores tightly sealed at room temperature for several days.