Kara & Michael’s Blog

For what it’s worth, these are my recipes for caramel corn and chocolate-almond biscotti. These aren’t original by any means, but they’re my tweaks to recipes that I found (probably online) a while back.

Caramel Corn
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter — margarine can be used but is less delicious
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Pop a bunch of popcorn — probably 6 quarts or so. A microwave air popper is ideal. Heat everything except the vanilla and baking soda to the “soft ball” stage (235°F) on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and baking soda. Pour the resulting ooze over the popcorn in a giant bowl, stirring the popcorn. Spread on one or more cookie sheets and put in a 200°F oven. Bake for about an hour, depending on how chewy you like your caramel corn, stirring every 15 minutes.

This is very bad for you and should not be eaten by anyone.

Chocolate Almond Biscotti
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 egg (Ener-G egg replacer actually works OK in this recipe)
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

(I’ve always used packaged sliced almonds in this recipe. You can toast them a bit in a pan on the stove or in the oven. I’ll typically finely chop or grind about half of the almonds to keep things interesting.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream together butter and sugar, then add the remaining ingredients except almonds and flour. Add flour. More flour may be needed depending on the season, weather, current temperament of the gods, etc. If the dough is too dry with 1 1/2 cups of flour, I’d favor adding a little water over cutting the flour back.

Form the dough into a sort of long, flat loaf, and bake on a greased cookie sheet for 20-30 minutes. Let cool thoroughly, then cut diagonally into strips. Turn the strips so the cut edges face down and return to a 350°F oven for 15-20 minutes, turning once halfway through cooking. Cool and optionally drizzle with dark chocolate.