Pink Salt & Vanilla Popcorn Brittle {Recipe}

Happy 2016 err’body! I spent the holiday period eating way too much food and not doing half the things I planned to do. I did, however, get around to making some of this glorious vanilla studded Popcorn Brittle based on a recipe for Peanut Brittle from Sam Linsell’s recipe book Sweet (I wrote about it in my Gifts for Foodies List last year).

Did you know you get two different types of popcorn seeds? I didn’t, until I googled how to make Kettle Corn. You get the regular, sold at every shop in SA, ‘butterfly’ type and then you get the rounded beauties used for kettle corn which are described as ‘mushroom popcorn’. Since I have never seen this ‘mushroom popcorn’ at any grocery store in South Africa, I used pre made Kettle Corn from Woolworths. They have a whole range of flavours, and it costs about R20 for a 70g bag.

In this recipe I used the Himalayan Pink Salt & Vanilla Popcorn, but I think it would be equally delicious with the Cinnamon Sugar Coated Popcorn as well.

You need a candy thermometer and liquid glucose/corn syrup for this recipe. You used to be able to buy liquid glucose at Dischem, but now you need to go to a specialty baking shop. I tried liquefying powdered glucose, but it’s way too much effort, and the results were not that satisfactory.

Here’s the obligatory HOT SUGAR IS HOT warning. Don’t be a hero, be careful when handling it.

Pink Salt & Vanilla Popcorn Brittle

 

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Author: jesska.co.za

Ingredients

• 200g White Sugar
• 125ml (1/2 cup) Glucose Syrup/Corn Syrup
• 60ml (1/4 cup) Water
• 100g Butter
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 70g Woolworths Himalayan Pink Salt & Vanilla Popcorn (or equivalent Kettlecorn)

Instructions

1. Add the sugar, glucose syrup and water to a pot on a medium heat.
2. Allow the mixture to dissolve and come to a boil, then stir in the butter.
3. Continue to boil the mixture until it reaches 147°C on a sugar thermometer (I took mine off the heat at 140°C as it would continue heating up while I added the other ingredients, because I was using a cast iron pan)
4. Add the vanilla, bicarb and popcorn, and stir until the popcorn is covered in the caramel.
5. Pour the mixture onto a baking tray greased with cooking spray or butter or onto a silicon mat, and allow to cool completely.
6. Smash the brittle with a kitchen hammer, or your fists of thunder.

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