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| Jane and Jerry in front of Emma Giesy's quilt at the Aurora Colony Museum. |
I'm not much of a cook or a baker. I got through the sixties with Julia Child's books on French Cooking. But somewhere along the way I found a recipe for Cracker Jacks. I make a three or four batches and give them away to neighbors and friends at Christmas. They get rave reviews. Since I'm allergic to corn I can't eat them so I accept the reviews of others. I posted a picture of my caramel rising on Facebook and mentioned my terrible mistake using cooking oil in place of corn syrup. The caramel never "fixed" and I finally read a label. Opps!
We set the pan outside in minus 10 degree weather to cool before dumping it and forgot about it. When we remembered we discovered...it got hard as a rock. We had to chip it out. If you avoid that sort of error you can enjoy this recipe for years to come.
The recipe below is a small gift to each of you from Jerry and me. Wish I could make enough for each of you! Merry Christmas every one. Jane
Jane's Cracker jacks
Pop 6 quarts of popcorn and put in a large bowl. Add salt and nuts if preferred. I add
nuts in layers.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees
Place in pan over low heat
2 sticks butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt if desired.
Bring to boil stirring steadily. When in full boil, oil for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and stir. As the goop caramelizes pour over the popcorn
and nuts and stir.
Put In roasting pans and bake for one hour. Stir every fifteen
minutes.
Store in airtight container.
Add little toys if you want.
Just like the old days. Enjoy!
Ps. The author of Blue Moon Vegetarian has some options including
coconut oil in place of butter and coconut in place of sugar. You might check that out.
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