¼ cup popcorn kernels ½ cup butter ¾ cup sugar ¼ cup corn syrup ½ tsp vanilla extract

Pop the kernels into plain popcorn.

Melt butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Add sugar and corn syrup. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or less. Do not let it come to a full boil, as that will burn the caramel. It should end up a medium brown caramel color. Lighter caramel brown makes a softer caramel. As soon as it gets a reddish tint, it will create a hard caramel that tastes more like the storebought caramel popcorn. Don't let it get darker than that.

When it's done, remove from heat and add vanilla extract, stirring in well. Pour over the popped popcorn in a large bowl. Turn the popcorn gently with two spoons or rubber spatulas until it's all covered with caramel.

Eat it while it's warm, or spread it out on waxed paper for the caramel to harden.

#butter #cornsyrup #dessert #glutenfree #popcorn #snack #sugar #vanilla #vegetarian

2 cups flour 2 Tbsp sugar 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda ½ tsp salt ¼ cup butter 1 cup buttermilk 1 Tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 375° F. Lightly grease a small baking sheet or dust with coarse cornmeal.

In a large bowl, sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in the butter with pastry blender or fork until mixture looks like fine crumbs. Add buttermilk. Mix with a fork until dry ingredients are moistened. Turn out on a lightly floured board and knead gently until smooth, about 1 minute.

Shape into a ball. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Flatten into a 7” circle. Dough will be about 1 ½” thick. Press a large knife into the loaf, almost cutting through to the bottom, dividing it into quarters.

Bake 30-40 minutes, or until the top is golden and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Remove to wire rack to cool. Brush top with melted butter.

#bakingpowder #bakingsoda #bread #butter #buttermilk #salt #sugar #vegetarian #wheatflour

¾ cup sugar ½ tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp grated nutmeg ¼ tsp allspice 1/8 tsp salt 1 egg 4 egg whites 1 ½ cups milk 1 ½ cups half-and-half

Combine sugar with the spices in a large bowl. Add the egg and egg whites and beat on high speed for 5 minutes.

Heat 1 cup of milk, stirring constantly, until it is steaming (not boiling). Slowly mix half of that into the egg mixture. Stir the egg mixture back into the hot milk in the pan. On medium heat, cook for 5-8 minutes, stirring constantly, until it is steaming again and thickened enough to thinly coat the back of the spoon. Do not boil it.

Remove from heat and stir it frequently as it cools for 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining milk and half-and-half. Cover and chill.

#allspice #cinnamon #dessert #drink #egg #eggwhite #glutenfree #halfandhalf #milk #nutmeg #salt #sugar

2 ¼ cups flour 1 ½ tsp baking powder ¾ tsp salt ½ cup sugar 1 Tbsp lemon zest ¾ cup butter ¾ cup milk 3 eggs

1 medium-large lemon 2 Tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 350° F and grease a bread pan.

In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, ½ cup sugar, and lemon zest. Cut in the butter.

In a small bowl, beat eggs and milk together. Then stir into the flour mixture.

Squeeze juice from the lemon. Reserve 4 tsp for the glaze and mix the rest into the batter (there will only be a little)

Pour into greased bread pan. Bake 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes.

Mix 2 Tbsp sugar and lemon juice together in a small pan. Heat until boiling. Boil for 5 minutes. Brush over the top of the loaf.

#bakingpowder #butter #cake #dessert #egg #lemonjuice #lemonzest #milk #salt #sugar #vegetarian #wheatflour

A classic and old-fashioned frosting that's thick and marshmallowy.

½ cup sugar ¼ cup corn syrup 2 Tbsp water 2 egg whites 1 tsp vanilla

Mix sugar, corn syrup and water in a saucepan. Cover, heat to a rolling boil over medium heat. Uncover and keep boiling rapidly until it reaches 242 on a candy thermometer, or it forms a firm ball which holds its shape until pressed when dropped in cold water.

As mixture boils, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Pour the hot syrup very slowly in a thin stream into the egg whites, beating constantly on medium speed. Add vanilla, beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. Variations

Cherry Nut: Stir in ¼ cup candied cherries and ½ cup chopped nuts.

Chocolate Revel: Stir in ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips or 1 ounce of baking chocolate, coarsely grated.

Cocoa: sift ¼ cup cocoa over finished frosting and fold in.

Fruity: Use any fruit juice instead of water.

Honey: Use honey instead of corn syrup.

Lemon: Substitute 1 Tbsp lemon juice for the vanilla and beat in ¼ tsp lemon zest.

Maple Pecan: Stir ¼ tsp maple flavoring and ½ cup chopped pecans into Satiny Beige frosting (below).

Peppermint: stir in 1/3 cup coarsely crushed peppermint candy, or ½ tsp peppermint extract.

Pineapple: Substitute 1 tsp lemon vest for the vanilla, and stir in 1 can (8 ounces) of crushed pineapple, drained.

Pink Mountain: Use maraschino cherry juice instead of water.

Raisin Nut: Stir in ¼ cup chopped raisins and ¼ cup finely chopped nuts.

Satiny Beige: Use packed brown sugar instead of of white sugar and use ½ tsp vanilla instead of 1 tsp

Tea: Use any kind of strongly brewed tea instead of water.

Tutti Frutti: Fold in chopped nuts and dried and candied fruits equal to ¼-½ cup.

#brownsugar #candiedfruit #chocolatechips #cocoa #cornsyrup #dairyfree #dessert #driedfruit #eggwhite #frosting #fruitjuice #glutenfree #honey #lemonjuice #lemonzest #nuts #pecan #pineapple #raisin #sugar #tea #vanilla #vegetarian

2 cups flour ½ cup sugar ¼ cup butter 2 tsp baking powder 1 cup milk 1 cup apple sauce ½ tsp salt 4 cups chopped fruit

Preheat oven to 350° F. Melt the butter in a 9”×13” pan in the oven.

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, milk, apple sauce, and salt.

Pour half of the batter into the pan with the melted butter. Pour the fruit over the top in an even layer. Spread the rest of the batter over the top.

Bake for 45-60 minutes or until crust is golden.

Use any kind of fruit you like!

For gluten-free, replace 2 cups flour with 1 cup almond meal and 1 cup gluten-free flour mix.

#almondmeal #apple #applesauce #apricot #bakingpowder #blackberry #blueberry #butter #cherry #cobbler #dessert #fruit #gfflour #glutenfree #grape #milk #peach #pear #pineapple #plum #raspberry #rhubarb #salt #strawberry #sugar #vegetarian #wheatflour

2 cups sugar ½ cup milk ½ cup butter ½ cup cocoa powder ¼ tsp salt 2/3 cup peanut butter 3 cups oats 1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine sugar, milk, butter, salt, and cocoa in a pan and bring to a boil. Once it has reached a full boil, time it for 1 minute and remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla until the peanut butter is all melted in, then add the oats. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened (it should only be a few minutes).

#butter #cocoa #cookie #dessert #glutenfree #milk #oats #peanutbutter #salt #sugar #vanilla #vegetarian

This recipe is from my grandmother, and I believe it's the original cookie recipe that used to come written on the Special K boxes.

1 cup corn syrup 1 cup sugar 1 cup peanut butter 6 cups Special K cereal

Put your cereal in a large bowl, and lay out a large sheet of waxed paper.

Bring corn syrup and sugar to a boil until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and mix in peanut butter.

Pour over cereal and mix well. Spoon cereal into cookies on wax paper and cool.

Substitute whatever cereal you like.

#cereal #cookie #cornsyrup #dairyfree #dessert #glutenfree #peanutbutter #sugar #vegan

From a useful breadmaking class.

• Acidity: Yeast loves acid. It grows well in acidic environments, and it actually creates acidic environments through its fermentation process. But once the environment becomes too acidic, the yeast dies and your bread dies. That is why you don't let it rise for too long. Also, if you add in acidic ingredients like onions or fruit juice, this will cause for problems with the bread going flat from the yeast dying.

• Kneading: The baker told us to treat the dough like it's a living organism. So we must treat it gently. When stirring the ingredients, don't cut through it with your spoon. Instead scoop the ingredients together and they will form dough on their own. When kneading, don't push and pull so hard that the dough tears. Be gentle with it. That's the best way to get soft dough with big bubbles. After gently kneading for a few minutes (adding in flour as necessary), the dough will start to resist, no longer absorbing flour, and physically fighting back against your hands. It will also take on a sort of luster or sheen, and that's when you know it's time to let it rest and rise.

• Sugar: Putting sugar in your dough is what causes the bread to come out browner. More sugar = browner, and sweeter sugar = browner. So ½ cup of honey will make a browner bread than ½ cup of cane sugar, because honey is much sweeter than cane sugar. The baker said that he only usually only uses a small amount of sugar to get the yeast going.

• Salt and Sugar: Sugar and salt in the recipe need to be inversely proportionate. If you use more sugar, you need to use less salt. If you use less sugar, you need to use more salt.

• Salt: Salt retards the ability of the yeast to ferment, so it's important to control how much salt you use, and/or when you add it to the dough.

• Rising: You know it's risen enough if you poke it and the hole from your finger stays in the dough.

• Fat: Fat is put in the bread for the sake of texture, not so much for flavor.

• Interesting Historical Fact: In the middle ages, white flour was made by sifting and grinding the wheat over and over again. This means that it still retained most of its nutrients, and was basically just as nutritious as the darker flours. That's different from the white flour of today, which is chemically bleached, which destroys the natural nutrients in the wheat, so that vitamins and such are artificially added back into the flour.

• Bread flour and all-purpose flour contain a good amount of gluten for making bread. Pastry flour and flour made from different grains, have less or no gluten, so they don't have the strength to stretch and hold the air, so they are not good for making yeast bread. They can be treated as add-ins for flavor, not used to create the structure of the bread.

• The sponge method of making bread:

This is a method, not a recipe, so go find a recipe and use this method for it.

Start the yeast in a bit of water with a bit of sugar or flour. Mix together the water, sugar, half the flour, and the yeast mixture after it's become all foamy.

Let this rest for a long time. Overnight in a cold environment or a few hours in a warm environment. It needs to become rather large and blobby and sticky and bubbly.

After it's rested, add in the salt, oil/butter, and more flour. Stir it gently, not cutting through the dough, but bringing the flour down the sides and underneath with your spoon, like scooping it together. When it's mostly together, turn out to a floured board and knead more flour in until it's ready.

Let rise twice, once as a blob (oiled, in an oiled and covered bowl), and once in loaf form. These loaves don't take as long to bake because they're more airy, more like ½ hour.

Any desired additional ingredients, like fruit, vegetables, herbs, seeds, whole grains, cheese, etc, can be added. They can be added either at the beginning, when making the sponge, or later when you add the rest of the ingredients. Any acidic ingredients should be added at the later point, and any dried/dehydrated ingredients should be soaked in water before going into the dough, so they don't mess up the dough's hydration level.

#bread #honey #note #salt #sugar #wheatflour #yeast

4 Tbsp butter ½ cup – 1 cup diced onions 4 lbs tomatoes, diced ¼ tsp thyme ½ tsp basil ¼ tsp black pepper 3 Tbsp flour 2 cups vegetable stock or chicken broth ¼ tsp baking soda 3 Tbsp sugar 1 ½ cups evaporated milk (12 oz can) ½ tsp salt 6-10 slices of bacon

In a large saucepan, saute the onions in the butter until tender, about 10 minutes (do not brown). Add the tomatoes, thyme, basil and pepper. Simmer 10 minutes. Whisk the broth and flour together and add to the soup mixture. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes, then remove from heat.

Fry the bacon until crispy and let cool, then crumble. Puree the soup in a blender, then return to the stove. Stir in the baking soda, sugar, milk, salt, and bacon. Heat, stirring, to a bare simmer, just to get it hot again.

Serves 3-4 people.

#bacon #bakingsoda #basil #butter #evaporatedmilk #main #onion #pepper #salt #soup #soupstock #sugar #thyme #tomato #wheatflour