BY SHALEEN DESTEFANO

September means Fall. I don’t make the rules. The second September 1st rolls around, I am ready. I don’t care if it’s still 90 degrees outside. I’m pulling out the sweaters, lighting the candles, making something cozy for dinner and pretending there’s a crisp breeze somewhere nearby.

There’s just something about September that makes me want to hunker down a little. Give me a good movie, a blanket, a drink and something warm and ridiculously snackable to eat straight from the bowl.

Enter: spicy caramel popcorn.

It’s sweet, salty, buttery and just spicy enough to keep your hand to mouth motion in constant rotation. And it’s exactly the kind of thing I want sitting on the coffee table for a movie night at home. If I had my dithers it would be Back to the Future, or Moonstruck, but sadly, I’m outnumbered.

So, yes, technically it may still feel like summer. But September is here, and my house and my popcorn bowl are ready for fall. 

Ingredients

20 cup air-popped popcorn (about ¾ cup unpopped popcorn)

3 cups granulated sugar

3 tablespoon salted butter

½ cup water

1 ½ tablespoon salt

1 ½ tsp baking soda (The baking soda reacts with the sauce and causes it to bubble up slightly, which makes it a bit lighter and easier to coat the popcorn.)

¾ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

Whisk the baking soda and cayenne pepper in a bowl. Set aside.

Coat two rubber spatulas and a large bowl with cooking spray. Add your popped corn to the bowl and set aside.

Set out two large baking sheets. You’ll use these after you’ve mixed the caramel sauce and popcorn together.

Combine the sugar, butter, salt, and ½ cup water in a medium saucepan. Cook over high heat, without stirring, until the mixture becomes a light caramel color, or until the sauce reads 280 on a candy thermometer.  (This should take around 12 minutes.)

Remove from heat, add the cayenne/baking soda mixture, and stir well. The mixture should start to bubble up.

Quickly pour the caramel mixture over the popcorn. Quickly mix the popcorn and spicy caramel mixture together with the prepared spatulas until the popcorn kernels are well coated.

Spread the popcorn onto the baking sheets and quickly separate the popcorn clusters into smaller pieces while still warm (if you wait until they are cooled it will be harder to separate).

Once cooled off, enjoy by the handful!