Clove-Spiced Caramel Corn

Spice entrepreneurs Sara Engram and Katie Luber (with Kimberly Toqe) show you how to give every dish a boost of good health and enhanced flavor in their new cookbook The Spice Kitchen: Everyday Cooking With Organic Spices. Along with great recipes and a primer on spices that will make anyone a better cook, the book is filled with tips, facts, and spice trivia. You’ll learn for example, that tarragon has been used to cure hiccups and that people in the middle ages put thyme under their pillows to prevent nightmares. Who knew?

Sample this spicy snack and you’ll want to cook your way through the book’s appetizers, entrees, and desserts.

Here’s a snack to love—fresh, homemade caramel corn. The cloves lend a wonderful flavor and aroma to this popular treat.

12 cups popped popcorn
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla
¹⁄8 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Remove all of the unpopped kernels from the popped corn. Place the popcorn into a large mixing bowl. Combine the butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, cloves, vanilla, and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook the caramel mixture over medium heat, stirring continually, until the sugar has dissolved. Allow the mixture to come to a boil and continue boiling the caramel, over medium heat, without stirring, for 5 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the baking soda. Pour the caramel over the popcorn and gently toss, using two forks, until the popcorn is evenly coated with caramel.

Spread the caramel corn in a single layer on a jelly roll pan. Bake the caramel corn for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Remove the caramel corn from the oven and allow to cool before serving. Store the caramel corn in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Makes 12 cups

TD&N Nutrient Analysis (for 1 cup): Calories: 154; Total Fat: 8 g; Saturated Fat: 5 g; Polyunsaturated Fat: 0 g; Monounsaturated Fat: 2 g; Cholesterol: 20 mg; Sodium: 56 mg; Carbohydrates: 21 g; Protein: 1 g ; Fiber: 1 g

Recipe used with permission from The Spice Kitchen: Everyday Cooking With Organic Spices by Sara Engram and Katie Luber with Kimberly Toqe, www.andrewsmcmeel.com