March 22, 2025 Recipe of the Week
The last few weeks have brought us great conditions for collecting sap. It looks like the weather trend will continue for the next little while so this is shaping up to be a good maple year!
Isaac has taken over the maple operation this year and he is doing a great job. His syrup has a symphony of flavours that only comes with large batch woodfire evaporator style syrup.
This week we also heard from members that you are interested in accessing other local and organic products as part of our farm share program so will now be offering Ontario-grown ancient grains organic popcorn on our farm store.
This week’s recipe is one of our favourite snacks which also includes our two feature products this week: Brown Butter Maple Caramel Popcorn!
| Pantry items: Extra virgin olive oil 6 tbsp butter Salt |
Included in your basket:
500 mg bottle popcorn (1/2 cup per recipe)
One bottle maple syrup (6 tbsp per recipe)
| Equipment: Paper lunch bag Microwave Pot and Spatula Mixing bowl |
Method
Start by popping your kernels:
- Mix 1/2 cup popcorn kernels with 1/2 tsp olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt in a bowl until kernels are fully coated in oil
- Place the coated kernels in a brown paper lunch bag
- Fold the top of the bag down ~1″ then fold the corners in and cut little tabs in the folded down corner sections. Fold the tabs down to hold the bag closed during popping
- Place the bag in the microwave and set the timer for 2 1/2 minutes
- Watch, listen and smell carefully. You will want to stop the microwave when the popping slows down and before you smell any scorching. It is definitely better to leave some kernels un-popped than to ruin the whole batch. In my microwave the perfect amount of time is 2m15s on high.
- Carefully remove the bag (it will be hot), open the top and pour the popcorn into a bowl
Next, make the brown butter maple caramel:
- Melt 6 tbsp butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat
- Swirl the pan and stir to keep it from burning on the bottom. You will hear it hissing and sizzling and large bubbles will form as water cooks off. When the large bubbles have subsided, small foamy bubbles will form and the pan will sound almost silent. At this point, watch very carefully for a change in colour as the milk solids start to turn golden brown and smell nutty and delicious (~3min).
- Pull from the heat as soon as the colour starts to change to stop the cooking. Add 6 tbsp maple syrup then continue cooking and stirring until it thickens enough to leave a trail very briefly behind the spatula/spoon as you stir along the bottom of the pan (~3-4min). Pull it off the heat AS SOON as this happens. Otherwise, you will end up with something that is still delicious but will not coat your popcorn and will remove all of your dental work!
Drizzle the caramel over the popcorn, toss, taste, add some salt if you like and refrigerate (if you can wait) for a few minutes to help the caramel to set.
Time Savers, Storage Tips and Spin off Recipes
- This is an awesome snack to have on hand. It is pretty quick to make but even quicker to grab ready-made from the cupboard.
- Consider dividing fully cooled popcorn into snack sized portions and storing in airtight containers (to keep it from getting soggy) at room temperature for up to a week, or longer in the freezer
Did you Know?
- Many of our modern-day chronic illnesses have been linked to high consumption of “ultra-processed foods” (basically anything that comes in a package and/or contains ingredients that you would not normally have in your kitchen like gums, preservatives and emulsifiers)
- ~60% of the Standard American Diet (SAD) is composed of ultra processed foods; this percentage is even higher in children and teens
- Michael Pollan, author of books such as The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, famously stated “eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself”, emphasizing the importance of home cooking rather than relying on pre-packaged foods
| This Recipe’s Plant Count: Only 2 but you can boost this by adding nuts at the same time that you add maple syrup to the brown butter caramel and turn this into a plant and protein packed power snack! |
| Time Required: 10 minutes |
| Number of Servings: This recipe makes ~8 cups of popped corn |
Harmony Kitchen 