Food Hussy Recipe: Praline Caramel Corn

I love love love Caramel Corn - but I'm not a very daring home chef and I just buy it - but I decided to be crazy and...MAKE IT MYSELF! I always thought caramel was this mysterious thing - but boy was I wrong! 

Turns out - it's EASY and far more delicious than the stuff you buy in the store!! Who knew? I decided to be a little adventurous and make a Praline Caramel Corn. Pralines have nuts, sugar and cream...so how did I do it?

First stop - was Kroger! They have some great private label brands like Private Selection and Simple Truth that I am always bringing home. I had some of the popcorn at home - my husband loves snacking on it - but I picked up some Simple Truth brown sugar, Private Selection white chocolate chips and my favorite thing ever - Praline Pecans! I love those sugar pecans you get at festivals and I've made them before - but it's time consuming - so grabbing a can of these bad boys is much easier!! 

I made the caramel from a recipe on Pioneer Woman - I figure for something like that - I'm going to go tried and true and basic. It was simple ingredients: brown sugar, butter, vanilla, salt and heavy cream. Throw it all in a pan - bubble up - whisk and you're done!

After that you just layer all the popcorn on a sheet pan - I chopped the pecans into smaller pieces and sprinkled them throughout. Then just drizzled the caramel all over the popcorn! Then you pop it in the oven for an hour - stirring every 20 minutes.

After that's all cooled, I melted the white chocolate chips in the microwave and drizzled those over top - gave it that "cream" element to finish off the pralines flavor! 

Simple Truth and Private Selection were real winners with this and man oh man - I dare say - I will never buy caramel corn again!!! The oven baking really made it crunchy! And that cute towel in the background - it's from the Pioneer Woman collection - I figure I owed it to her since she gave me the caramel recipe!

Praline Caramel Corn

Ingredients:

- 1 cup Simple Truth light brown sugar
- 1/2 stick salted butter
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- Pinch of coarse sea salt
- 1 bag Simple Truth Popcorn
- 1/2 can Private Selection Pecan Pralines, chopped
- 1/2 cup Private Selection White Chocolate Chips

Instructions:

- Preheat oven to 250 degrees
- For caramel sauce - Mix Simple Truth brown sugar, butter, heavy cream, vanilla and salt in a medium saucepan over medium-low to medium heat. Cook while whisking gently for 5 to 7 minutes, until thicker. Turn off heat. 
- Cover cookie sheet with parchment paper
- Spread Simple Truth popcorn on parchment paper and add chopped Private Selection Pecan Pralines
- Drizzle warm caramel over popcorn & pecans - toss gently and spread out evenly on pan
- Bake for 1 hour - stirring every 20 minutes
- Let caramel corn cool 
- Melt 1/2 cup Private Selection White Chocolate Chips in microwave (30-45 seconds at a time until liquid) 
- Drizzle white chocolate over caramel corn 
- Let cool for a few minutes and then serve! (Or store in airtight containers) 

* Caramel Sauce courtesy of Pioneer Woman

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Kroger. 

 The opinions and text are all mine.