Circus Food from Dumbo

We made cotton candy and popcorn for Dumbo. Since most people probably don't have a cotton candy machine, I thought I would share my Caramel Corn Recipe instead. By all means, just pop some popcorn and watch it with your kids if you want to. This is if you just want to do a little more.

Ingredients

1 cup of butter

2 cups of brown sugar

½ cup of light corn syrup

1 teaspoon baking soda

8-10 cups of popped popcorn, about 1 cup unpopped.

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Pop your popcorn. I like to use an air popper because I get fewer unpopped kernals to deal with. You can use microwave popcorn, but I find that it changes the flavor depending on how much prebuttered flavor is on it. Pour popcorn in a big roasting skillet if you have one. You can also use 2 9X13 glass pans. Or you can use a large metal bowl and then transfer to 2 baking sheets once coated.
3. In a medium pot on the stove, melt the cup of butter. Then add brown sugar and corn syrup and stir. Cook over medium heat.
4. Bring to a boil and cook about 5 minutes. You don't want it to burn, so if it seems like it is turning too dark, turn down your heat or remove from heat. It should get really foamy/bubbly.
5. Remove from heat and add baking soda. As you stir it in, it should change color and texture.
6. Once fully stirred in, pour over the popcorn. Stir to coat popcorn. Transfer to baking sheets if using a bowl to coat.
7. Place in oven and set timer for 15 minutes. At 15 minutes, pull out caramel corn and stir around again. Then place back in the oven and set timer for 15 minutes. Repeat two more times.
8. During the final 15 minute timer, cover your counter with paper bags or wax paper. After the timer (should equal 1 hour in the oven total), pour caramel corn on cover counter to cool. Let cool 5-10 minutes. Eat right away or store in air tight container (Ziploc or Tupperware works great). Enjoy!

As I said, we made cotton candy and regular popcorn. Tori took control of the popcorn and I was manning the cotton candy station. She helped with hers. She wanted the biggest fluffiest one I could make. When we watched the movie, she asked a lot of questions about circuses past, present, and future. I have never taken my kids to a circus, but she has been to a fair and it is similar. I went to the Ringling Bros circus a couple times as a kid. I shared stories about that. My mother LOVES Dumbo! So, she joined in the fun on this one. She also had stories of going to the circus as a child. Tori said she preferred going to the zoo to see the animals, but thought the trapeze looked like fun!

Dumbo has a special place in our family. When my mother was pregnant with my younger brother Drashan, she would sing Baby of Mine to him in her belly. When he was born, he almost died. He was in the NICU for weeks and it was a very scary time for our family. I was 15 at the time. During the first night, my mother sat next to his crib in the NICU and sang Baby of Mine. He moved and reached out and grabbed her finger. It was the first sign that he was fighting his way back to us. So of course, whenever we get to that part, my mom and I both cry. I hope you enjoy this sweet moment with your baby.