Submitted by Jaye Norris

About the cook: Mom of one grown son who is an Aerospace Engineer. I was a bakery owner for 15 years, and now work as a private chef for one family.

About the dish: I love making my own variations of granola and caramel corn because I can add the ingredients I like depending on the season. For Fall I make my caramel corn with pumpkin pie spice, pumpkin seeds, maple syrup and chocolate chips. You can change it up with your favorite nuts, and or dried berries.

National Origin: Colonial American

Serves: 10

Estimated Time: 1 to 2 Hours

Ingredients:

8 C Plain popped popcorn
1/2 C dk brown sugar
1/2 C real maple syrup
1 stick salted butter
3 T light corn syrup
1 T molasses
1 T Pumpkin pie spice
1/4 t baking soda
1/2 C heavy cream

Inclusions: 1 C salted pumpkin seeds (or other nuts and dried fruit of choice)
1/2 C mini-semi sweet morsels
* Sea salt flakes, optional

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 200F .
Spray a large rimmed baking sheet with non-stick coating, line baking pan with a sheet of parchment.
Popped popcorn should be in a large bowl that you can mix in the maple spice coating.
To make the coating mixture, in a small saucepan combine: dark brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, corn syrup, molasses, and pumpkin pie spices. Bring to a boil, boil for about 5 mins, gently stirring.
Remove from heat, stir in 1/4 t. baking soda. Pour about 2/3 of this over the popcorn, toss in nuts (and dried berries if using) folding all together until coated, spread on the lined rimmed baking sheet.
Bake in 200F oven for 15 minutes, stir and repeat this process 2 x’s more. Cool for 1/2 hour.
Maple drizzle: combine the remaining caramel maple sauce, and 1/3 C heavy cream, bring to a boil for 1 minute. Remove and drizzle this over the cooled caramel, after 10 minutes sprinkle the mini chocolate chips randomly over the top.
*Sprinkle very lightly with sea salt flakes for a more sweet and salty combination.
Chill in fridge until ready to break-up and serve. Keeps a week in airtight container.

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