Caramel Popcorn

The crowning snack of movie nights: home-popped corn in a crisp caramel coating.

1. Heat the 2 tablespoons cooking oil in a thick-bottomed pot, drop in 2-3 kernels of corn and cover it. When these pop, the oil is hot enough.

2. Pour in the rest of the corn in a single layer, cover it, and pop it, shaking the pot now and then, so nothing burns.

3. When the popping slows to every 2-3 seconds, take it off the heat and pour it into a large bowl. Pick out the unpopped, hard kernels so they do not break a tooth.

4. For the caramel, melt the butter, the brown sugar and the honey over a low heat, then boil for 4-5 minutes without stirring – you get a golden-brown, thickly bubbling syrup. Stir in the salt too; salted caramel is even more exciting.

5. Add half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda: the mixture immediately foams pale, and this is what makes the coating light and crisp.

6. Pour the hot caramel over the corn, quickly turn it through with two spoons, spread it on a baking-paper-lined tray, and dry it at 140 °C for 20 minutes. Once cooled, break up the clumps.

Tip: The bicarbonate of soda cannot be left out: without it the caramel turns glassily hard rather than light and crumbly.