
This month for Secret Recipe Club I was given the blog, Bakeaholic Mama and man, was I excited! One look at Carrie’s site and you’ll understand why. First, her site is gorgeous with its cute design and crisp, clean pictures that just invite you to take a bite. She’ll get your mouth-watering from the moment you land on her homepage. Carrie says that she is “a young food obsessed wife, mother of three kiddos and a black lab. And I am a bacon crazed yoga lover from New Hampshire.” Right off the bat, as a young food obsessed wife, mother of 3 children and a bacon freak myself, I immediately love this lady!
Then I got to really looking around and peeking at all the scrumptious creations that were waiting for me to feast my eyes on. At first I thought I would simply have to make her Pound Cake with Caramel Peaches and Chevre Whipped Cream and trust me, I will be making that. As everyone knows by now, I am a fiend for goat cheese and I’ve never had it in whipped cream but not only that, she made an avocado pound cake. Yes, avocado! I find that to be so intriguing. Bookmarked!
Then I thought about making Carrie’s Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese. Holy crow, that sounds good!! I love buffalo chicken but I can’t say I’ve ever used it in mac and cheese and now, I definitely need to. And there’s bacon too! That’s a big win in my book. As I continued to have trouble narrowing things down, I stumbled across Sea Salted Maple Caramel Popcorn.
Oh yes, this was it. I immediately loved the salty sweet combo cause well… that’s kind of one of my all-time favorite things ever! As I read her post, Carrie mentioned this was to be her Hurricane Irene survival food. Being on the East Coast myself, I knew exactly what she meant and I could have used this kind of food during my time with Irene. I also pretty instantly knew that I would need to add bacon to this popcorn. I knew that the maple hints in Carrie’s caramel corn would be the perfect sweet for the porkiness. It all comes back to the whole “sweet and salty” goodness. Bacon really does make everything better. Everything.
When I sampled the creation I was quickly hooked, like scary hooked. I had to stop myself but even that wasn’t enough. I actually had to take it to work to prevent myself from eating the entire batch. I’m not being dramatic here people. You need to make this. Now. Today. At the latest, tomorrow. After you do you’ll need to have a bit and then you’re going to need to find the best hiding spot in your house and put this popcorn there.
The crunchy popcorn has a perfect balance of maple, brown sugar sweetness, buttery pecans and then you’re hit with the smoky flavor from the bacon. What happens next is that you just find yourself so enamoured that you cannot help but continue to reach back into the bowl, handful after handful. Yes, this is that kind of snack. Consider yourself warned.
*Is there any snack that you absolutely have no self-control around?
One Year Ago: Cherry Clafouti
An irresistible snack of sweet caramel corn with crispy bites of bacon, pecans and a hint of maple.
Ingredients
- 1 bag of plain microwave popcorn, popped
- 8 slices bacon
- 2 cups pecans, coarsely chopped
- 1 stick of unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar (I used dark)
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 275 degrees.
- Cook the bacon slices until crispy. Drain on paper towels. Once cool, coarsely chop into pieces.
- In a large bowl, toss together the popped popcorn, bacon pieces and pecans. Set aside.
- In a medium sauce pan, add the butter, brown sugar and maple syrup. Melt, stirring and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat and add the vanilla and baking soda.
- Working quickly, pour the caramel over the popcorn mixture and stir until all the pieces are covered.
- Spread out onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven, break apart a bit and then let it cool.
- Enjoy!
Now, let’s go see what the rest of the Secret Recipe Club has been up to this month, shall we?
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
I just love Carrie’s blog too! She makes the best stuff:-) I am loving the caramel corn love you have going on here. My kids would flip at the thought of bacon in it too! Such a fun twist to the recipe.
I am so glad I found her blog! Definitely a new favorite. And I’m so glad you like my spin on Carrie’s recipe!
Awesome job! This looks like the absolute perfect snack!
Thanks Jenni! It was a really dangerous snack 🙂 Almost too good!
WOW your popcorn looks awesome. I forgot I even posted a maple corn… one of my earlier posts. Thanks so much for all the lovely things you said about my blog, you are too sweet <3
Hi Carrie! Thanks so much for your comment! I adore your blog and I’ll definitely be coming back to read often.
Ooh yum! I’m a total sucker for sweet and salty treats, this popcorn looks awesome 🙂
A girl after my own heart! Thanks 😉 Glad you like it.
Popcorn is a huge go-to snack in our home (I made it this month for my SRC entry too) and yours is screaming my name, it’s going to be my next popcorn experiment. Great SRC choice. If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to check out my group “A” SRC entry: Candied Popcorn.
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
Ooo! I’ll have to go check yours out. Thanks for passing by!
oh wow, this sounds absolutely amazing! i love carrie’s site, + i’m not surprised you found something fab to make there. =) i’ll definitely have to try this soon!
Thanks Amy! Hope you like it!
uh…*DROOL*
I think that’s all I can think of right now 🙂
Happy Reveal Day!
Ha! Glad I could make you drool 😉
I imagine that I would have absolutely no self control when it would come to this! It looks so amazing!
Oh yes, it’s definitely that kind of snack 😉 Thanks for your comment!
OH MY WORD. That sounds amazing. Can you please bring some over for a midnight snack?
I’ll be right over!! 😉 Thanks for the comment.
Would it sound weird if I said ‘LIKE OMG, this is LIKE totally LIKE the most amazing popcorn snack I’ve ever seen?” I don’t even know what else to say, Kate..I’m literally stifled at the thought of popping a handful of it in my mouth. I definitely would have chosen this, and I’m definitely going to be making this at some point this summer, after I’ve eaten salads for a week 😉
HA!! Great comment! Love it 🙂 This is seriously a dangerously addictive snack so yes, you’ll need weeks of salads in preparation.
What a GREAT recipe! LOVE it, it’s lovely to meet you and your blog through SRC – visiting from group D and Lavender and Lovage! Karen 🙂
Hi Karen! Thanks for passing by! I’m so glad you like my spin on Carrie’s recipe.
Maple and Bacon? Heck yeah this sounds good. Great call if I say so myself; I make my own bacon from pork belly and my favorite so far. Maple Bourbon Bacon. I could translate that to popcorn without a doubt!
You make your own bacon? I am so impressed, Barb! I should give that a go. I bet it tastes amazing! Glad you liked this recipe 🙂
i am absolutely with you: bacon makes EVERYTHING better. seriously. and i adore nuts. so making this. i’ve pinned it for future usage 🙂
happy src reveal, friend!
Thanks Kristy! Hope you like it! Let me know how it goes 🙂
Wow, I barely have self control around any of the elements of this recipe alone. I can’t even imagine how good this popcorn is when it all comes together!! And I definitely love Carrie’s blog too, so much goodness over there!
You and me both! I’m so glad you like it.
Oh my gosh, yum! This is one fantastic looking popcorn. I would have been extremely excited to have been paired up with this blogger, too.
Thanks Jennie! And yes, Carrie’s blog is awesome! Lots of yumminess over there for sure 🙂
In the name of all that is holy! Kate, what a choice. And then you added bacon. Of course you did.. good golly.
Ha! How could I not?? It was just begging for it 🙂
Caramel corn = no self control! Wonderful choice! Adding it to my “must make” list!(Visiting you from SRC Group D.)
Thanks Dorothy!! Hope you enjoy it!
Oh my holy heck. Is that popcorn? With maple? And BACON? I think I’m in looooove.
Oh yes it is!! It’s all those wonderful things all rolled together into addictive goodness 😉
I have NO control around popcorn… I dont think I could trust myself around a popcorn like this! But I’m making it anyway!
Holy crow! I’m not kidding Meghan, this popcorn is SCARY good! It’s dangerous and wonderful. Hope you like it if you make it!