Homemade Cracker Jack Popcorn

Today I am bringing you another recipe that I found over at the Hillbilly Housewife. Last month I sat down and went through her site and printed off all the recipes that I wanted to make. When I first saw the recipe for homemade caramel corn I noticed on the bottom of the recipe that it stated this recipe is similar to Cracker Jack. I wondered to myself was it really? I used to eat Cracker Jack all the time when I was younger it was so good. Well I have made this recipe twice already and I can honestly say, yes it does taste just like Cracker Jack, so I have renamed this as Homemade Cracker Jack Popcorn. This recipe is very good prepared with or without nuts. The first time I made it I left out the nuts because my kiddos dislike nuts.

The second time I made it, I told them they were on their own picking them out cause mama likes the nuts. The funniest part about making this recipe was popping up the pop corn. You see I popped mine up the old fashioned way in a pot with some oil. My kids thought I was crazy. I poured the oil, added the popcorn and put the lid and just waited. one pop then two and three and pop pop pop pop. My kids came in the kitchen and said Mom what are you doing? I said popping popcorn, my daughter said in a pot why not in a bag in the microwave. I told her this is the way it used to be cooked before they had microwave popcorn. Mackenzie said what!!!!!!!!! no microwave popcorn, to funny. I mainly did this just to see the their reaction and the looks on their faces. Mackenzie's face was so priceless. Now my baby knows you can make popcorn on the stove to!

These are the ingredients you will need:
8 cups popped pop corn, brown sugar, margarine, light corn syrup, salt, baking soda, vanilla extract and peanuts (optional)

in a 2 quart sauce pan combine the brown sugar, margarine, corn syrup and salt over low heat. After the margarine melts,

cook without stirring for 3 minutes. It should be bubbling gently during the 3 minutes.


Stir in the baking soda and vanilla.

Arrange the popcorn (and peanuts, if you are using them) in a well oiled 9″ by 13″ pan. Quickly pour this over the pan of popcorn. Mix gently to coat the popcorn evenly. You wont get all of it coated, but don't worry once it is in the oven you can check it every 5 minutes and mix it with your spatula and make sure all the popcorn is coated.

bake the pan at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes.

remove from oven see all the popcorn is coated with all that caramel goodness.

then using your spatula quickly, remove the caramel corn. It can be a bit of a task scraping it off but just work fast. Break it up into pieces and serve.

I was so amazed it tasted just like cracker jack popcorn. This would be the perfect gift around the holidays. Just add some to those cute little clear gift sacks and tie a ribbon on and that's it.

Homemade Cracker Jack

8 cups popped popcorn
1 cup peanuts (optional)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup margarine
3 tablespoons corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon each salt & baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Arrange the popcorn (and peanuts, if you are using them) in a well oiled 9″ by 13″ pan. Get out a 2 quart sauce pan and combine the brown sugar, margarine, corn syrup and salt over low heat. After the margarine melts, cook without stirring for 3 minutes. It should be bubbling gently during the 3 minutes. Stir in the baking soda and vanilla. Quickly pour this over the pan of popcorn. Mix gently to coat the popcorn evenly. Bake the pan at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes. Break it up into pieces and serve. This stuff is so good and wont last long , but if you do end up with leftovers, store them in a sealed container, or bag. It is good tucked into lunch boxes too.

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Tina, The Mom in Mommy's Kitchen