Beer Nuts?! We Don?t Want No Stinkin? Beer Nuts!

Most caramel corn is Way Too Sweet. Not this stuff, though.

Why do most people open a bar?  To make money.  I’m sure that lots of people will say that it’s because they like to be around people or they really like beer or they didn’t want to follow daddy into banking, but the bottom line is folks open bars to make money.  And they make money by selling beer and other Adult Beverages.  The more they sell, the more they make.  It pays to make sure that folks stay thirsty, so the bar snack is something that is really important.  If it’s too sweet, the beer will taste off.  If it’s not salty, people won’t drink as much beer.  If it’s just a sad old dish of Chex Mix (sorry, Chex, but seriously), folks will think you just don’t care.

So what was the bar snack that we came up with to open the restaurant?  Spiced caramel corn.  Sure, it was somewhat sweet, but we upped the salt to balance it and added some spices to give it some heat.  This stuff is like crack.  I’m telling you this because, if you make it and get addicted and then have to go on some rice cake step down program, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This Awesome Snack gets made in parts.  First, we’d make a large batch of spiced pepitas.  There really aren’t any measurements for this–I’d just make enough “goo” to lightly coat however many pepitas I was preparing.  Like a lot of things that I make, this is just a procedure:  use some egg whites to make some flavorings stick to some nuts.  Bake them in a low oven until the egg whites are crisp and the nuts are a light golden brown.  Apply this to any sort of seeds or nuts you want to use, and use whatever seasonings sound good.  Here’s how we did them.

Spiced Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

Whisk everything together and fold in pepitas.  You don’t want them to be dripping in the goo, just lightly coated.  If you’re unsure how much you’ll need, start with a smaller batch and then make some extra if you need it.  Spread pepitas out in a thin layer (no thicker than about 1/2″) on a Silpat-lined baking sheet.  Bake at 325 for ten minutes.  Stir the pepitas and bake a few more minutes.  Watch them carefully–you want them to be golden.  The nuts can still be a tiny bit sticky, but they certainly shouldn’t still be wet.  Cool.  As the nuts cool, they should crisp up.  If you still have some spots that are a bit gooey, put them back in the oven for a couple of minutes.

Spiced Caramel Corn

I made this stuff in 3 shallow hotel pans or 2 deep ones.  If you only have 2 racks in your oven, I’d halve the recipe and use huge roasting pans–the disposible kind are fine, but please clean them and recycle them when you’re done.

Spray your roasting pans or hotel pans liberally with pan spray.  Put the popped corn into two large roasting pans or hotel pans.  Sprinkle 2 cups pepitas on top of each pan of popcorn.

In a pan that is much larger than you think you’ll need, melt together and bring to a boil the corn syrup, butter, brown sugar, salt, and spices.  Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the baking soda and stir until the mixture foams up and looks like caramel shaving cream.

Quickly and carefully pour half of the mixture over each pan of popcorn and pepitas.  Scrape the pan to get all of the goodness out.

Fold the popcorn, pepitas and caramel together with a large silicone spatula.  Try and keep the popcorn in the pan, but just know that this is a Messy Process.  Once you get the caramel pretty well evenly distributed throughout the popcorn, put the pans in the oven at 225 degrees for 1 hour, 15 minutes.  Open the oven and stir the popcorn every 15 minutes.  Each time you stir, the corn and pepitas will get more and more evenly coated with the caramel, so don’t worry if you have some naked kernels when you first put the pans in the oven.

Once you take the popcorn out of the oven, stir it again to break it up.  Stir every few minutes to keep it from solidifying into one large brick of caramel corn.  Unless that’s what you’re going for.  In that case, carry on.  This is also a good time to pack the caramel corn into balls if you feel like making popcorn balls.

Notes:  Don’t make this on a humid day.  When I used to make this, I was in Florida, so it was pretty much humid most of the time.  We bought metal food-safe dessicant packs to keep the popcorn dry.  We’d store this in large 20 -24 quart Cambros with a dessicant pack or two.  The bar would go through it in two days, and then we’d make it again.  If you don’t have dessicant packs, know that it will soften after several hours in very humid areas.

Please remember, if you choose to make this, there is no Going Back.  You will be hooked.