Golden Bacon Caramel Corn: The Prize inside Lincoln's head

"caramelly caramelly corny corn!!!" Bonus this awesome caramel corn has its sweetness, rained in by the awesomeness of salty savory and smoky bacon!! (fat)!!

Before making this recipe I had only made caramel corn one other time, many years ago, I used Paula Dean's recipe and it wasn't hard but it just wasn't simple enough for me to make again,  plus am I the only person that doesn't keep corn syrup on hand ?!
any way  one day came a across this recipe  from iamalazymom ( clearly a woman after my own heart, only with responsablities and shit). what made this one great was that you didn't have to dry  your corn in the oven and stir it and stuff,  and it was all ingredients you have around already!

... I didn't have any of those ingredients  but what i did have was this busted looking popcorn popper that makes awesome popcorn, and bacon fat in my freezer so, I imporvised!

and I have actually made this recipe several times, till I ran out of bacon :-( .  

 DONT TAKE PHOTOS WHILE ITS POPPING LIKE THIS!!! ( a kernel hit me in the face!)

its important to cook your syrup long enough or you will have a grainy end product, ( but dark molasses makes burning a risk, but toeing the line is just one of the thrills of being alive right?)

mix quickly!

The taste isn't super bacony, if you wanted that you could ad your bacon crumble back in, but the smoke and salt, which also come from the smoke salt and the black strap molasses give it yummy sweet & savory flavor, instead of just and overwhelming candy flavor. 

Golden Bacon Caramel Corn

Ingredients

• 1 cup unpopped popcorn
• 1 cup (dark) brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon molasses ( robust or blackstrap)
• 1/4 cup water
• Pinch ream of tartar
• 1 Tablespoon bacon grease
• 1/4 cup butter
• Hearty pinch smoked salt
• 1 Teaspoon baking powder

Cooking Directions

1. First Pop popcorn kernels salt lightly and set aside to rest.
2. Mix white sugar water and cream of tartar and cook in medium heat for a minute, until  dissolved and syrupy.( or just replace this bit with 1/4 cup of corn syrup)
3. Take all the ingredients besides the salt, baking soda and popcorn and mix them in the pot together. (blackstrap molasses can be found at most health food stores,and robust and most regular stores)
4. Shake to mix and let cook for 3 to 5 minutes but pay attention to the smell , and watch so it doesn't burn. (If you don't cook it long enough it will be gritty and soft when dry. )
5. When the sauce is cooked dump in the baking soda and shake the side a little to make it foam up.
6. add the popcorn immediately and stir together and add smoked salt. Once well combined spread onto a prepared sheet pan lined with parchment paper