Gingerbread Popcorn

Today's holiday treat is popcorn with a crunchy gingerbread flavored topping. I got the recipe from Joe at Culinary in the Desert (although he's in the country now).When I made it, I thought it was kind of different and I couldn't decide if I liked it or not. But I found myself going back to sample it again and again, so I guess I liked it!

I made this last year for little gifts for the members of CRB (my band). I figure it's easy to OD on cookies and candies at this time of year and it's nice to get something that's a little different. Come to think of it, I never did hear how they liked it. Hmmmm....

Gingerbread Popcorn
From Culinary in the Desert

15 cups popped popcorn
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line two large baking dishes (I used 9 X 13 pans) with foil and coat with cooking spray. Fill each with 7 1/2 cups popcorn.

Combine butter, brown sugar, molasses, corn syrup, ginger, cinnamon, and salt in a large, heavy bottom saucepan. Heat over medium heat until mixture boils. Boil for 5 minutes; stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add baking soda. Pour over popcorn; toss to coat.

Bake at 250 for one hour, carefully stirring the warm mixture about every 15 minutes. Cool completely.

I'm sending this to Ruth's Kitchen Experiments for her Bookmarked Recipes blog event. Every Monday she posts recipes that have been bookmarked from Web sites, cookbooks, magazines, etc.