Homemade Caramel Corn with Peanuts

I was in the mood to make some dessert, but low on flour and didn’t want to get groceries. Then I found this recipe for spicy caramel popcorn with peanuts on Smitten Kitchen, my old standby.

This was my first time making caramel corn, and I’m not sure what I was waiting for. I have a hot-air popper, which made it even easier. I had the caramel cooking first, then made the popcorn, then mixed it all together. Local popcorn and local peanuts, by the way. I do wish I had put more cayenne in – but maybe mine isn’t very spicy.

Yum. I have a snack to go eat now.

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Peanut bars

I’m a big fan of Larabars, the all-natural energy bars made of dates, fruit and nuts, and recently tried the peanut butter cookie flavour, which is nothing but peanuts, dates and salt. It was really good, and not to cut into Larabar sales, but I figured I could make it at home just as well.

I had some Ontario peanuts in the cupboard that I’d bought at the market a few weeks ago, so I threw half a cup (mixed with some cacao nibs for flavour) and a couple of Medjool dates into my new spice and nut grinder (got it on sale at the Bay) – the food processor would have worked just as well (except perhaps for the cacao nibs), but I wanted to play with my new toy.

The verdict? Success! The proportion of dates should have been higher to make them less dry, but overall, I’m impressed with how easy they were to make. I do make my own energy bars from other recipes but this is the first time I’ve tried a simple one. And I love being able to make extra use of my local peanuts – I’m sure I can whip up some homemade peanut butter in my grinder too, with the addition of a bit of extra oil. Yum!

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