Maple Bacon Kettle Corn
Things that I’m really good at:
cooking bacon, eating popcorn, writing on graph paper, text messaging, and typing simple equations into my calculator.
Things that I really suck at:
math.
I already have a serious problem with kettle corn.
A few months back I ate only kettle corn for a week straight.
You think I’m kidding. I’m not.
Now I’ve gone and cooked the kettle corn in bacon fat and added crisp bacon bits and maple syrup.
This can’t end well.
It will surely end with one sticky computer.
Oh well.?
Maple Bacon Kettle Corn
4 slices bacon, cooked, fat reserved
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/4 cup cooking fat (use the reserved bacon fat and extra olive or vegetable oil to make 1/4 cup of popcorn cooking fat)
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons salt (depending on your taste)
Cook off bacon until brown and crisp. Set aside to cool. Once cool, chop into small bits and toss with maple syrup.
Carefully measure out the hot bacon grease. If you don’t have 1/4 cup of fat, add some vegetable or canola oil to make 1/4 cup of oil for cooking the popcorn.
In a large pan over medium high heat, heat the bacon fat and oil mixture. Add the corn kernels. Sprinkle over the sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cover the pan with a tight fitting lid and wait for the popping to begin.
Once the popping begins, use two good pot holders the hold together the pan and the lid and shake the pot. Feel free to take the pot off the flame to give it a good shake. Just be careful and then return the pot to the flame. Shake often throughout the popping process. This will help ensure that the sugar doesn’t burn the pan and the popcorn.
Once finished popping remove the lid and salt with 1/2 to 1 teaspoon more salt. Use a large spoon to stir the popcorn. You don’t want the hope sugar to burn you. Pour in the bacon and maple mixture. Toss together and serve.
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Why do I always open these emails at work when I know that I will really want to go immediately to my kitchen and make whatever Joy recommends. This one I’m saving for Friday night to snack on while I watch a good DVD and sip a glass of something bubbly.
Jenni, that sounds just perfect.
This is so unfair! I am sitting here eating plain popcorn with NO BACON OR MAPLE. Woe is me.
my jaw dropped at the title of this post alone.
DITTO! Joy, can I move in with you?
Double Ditto! And I agree with Meagan… Can I move in Joy? I”ll clean, do laundry and other rather domestic stuff. I’ll wash all the dishes. And I am so making this Friday night… YUM!
Ahh, I can’t eat this, but am sure it’s amazing!
Can I just say though that your new banner is SO cute?? I’ve always wondered…do you make them yourself?
Hi Joy
This kettle corn looks amazing. I love sweet and savoury together. Now I’m going to ask an unpopular question. Could I leave out the bacon? Have you tried it? Does it work? Just wondering as I don’t eat bacon etc. But the combination of maple syrup and salt sounds amazing.
I’ve never popped my own corn or anything like that it never even occured to me. I don’t think popcorn is even that popular in the UK unless it’s related to film. But your kettle corn looks mightily delicious.
Thanks for sharing the recipe and making me drool despite the bacon.
Beks
I was thinking about this (my comment is above yours) and bet her caramel corn recipe with some extra salt would be a good compromise for us! http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2010/03/homemade-caramel-corn/
Damn, this looks like one tasty and crazy snack! I’ll have to make this one!
Yes, that sort of settles it. Diet is postponed for another week. Again.
Man, I better delete your bookmark! It’s just that I know I can’t :(
Your new autumny header is beautiful!
This sounds perfect for the football games this Sunday! Go Redskins!
omg sounds amazing!!!
I have had a bad popcorn problem since I was a child.
I love it.
I sometimes get these cravings for it and it has to be just right.
I avoid cinemas that I know have bad popcorn. I don’t care about Inception. If the popcorn aint good I don’t want to see it. I’d watch Hot Tub Time Machine every day though, as long as they gave me that good old proper popcorn machine fresh buttered popcorn. I wouldn’t care. Show me anything. I’d even watch something really scary.
Now, another thing I have a problem with is bacon. I like to incorporate bacon in every meal. My friends believe in that myth they call cholesterol but I know that is all a lie. I eat loads of bacon and I am fine. And my friend who eats vegetables all the time now has to eat even more vegetables because his cholesterol is through the roof. That does not make sense to me.
Something that does make sense to me though is your Maple Bacon Kettle Corn. You. Are. A. Genius.
I’d definitely watch any movie with you, Joy. Even the scariest one. And I’d be so happy. Maple bacon kettle corn… Ahhhhhhhhhh
Tasty topic in today’s post + visual of the recipe in equation form = PRICELESS!
I think you are trying to kill me.
I feel like I have done nothing but be a loyal follower and you are trying to kill me.
Please, oh please, do not make anything else in the near future with bacon grease because I have no choice but to make it. I can only imagine how delicious this is going to be…
wow! this will result in a sticky house/life but looks worth it.
PS
I made your other kettle corn recipe and have spread the word about it like wildfire—now I have my sister in MD making it too! and her friends all over other parts of the country! soooo tasty.
Wow you read my mind. I ate at least five servings of kettle corn yesterday for breakfast and lunch. I will have to try this recipe next time. Anything with bacon is worth my time.
I keep meaning to add bacon to my popcorn but I think I’ll just spiral down the rabbit hole if I go there.
Joy, you are just too delightful!
You read my mind and I didn’t even know these were in there. Dreams are coming true today.
Wow. I love kettle corn too, but this looks crazy good!
Whenever I make kettle corn, I usually just have my sugar measured out and ready to add to my corn as soon as it starts popping. Then, I crank up the temperature and start moving the kernels around a lot faster. I have one of those crank style popcorn poppers that beat the pants off of the microwave stuff.
Have you ever tried baking your bacon? It comes out evenly cooked, and the bacon fat is nicely reserved in the baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lay the raw bacon on a cooling rack inside of a baking sheet. Once your oven reaches temp, put the bacon in the oven for 18-20 minutes. Perfect every time.
I can’t wait to try this out this weekend. I’m glad you’re over your baker’s block. I was going to suggest something with pork in it, but I guess you beat me to it.
Oh my heavens – what have you DONE??!!??! And WHY do I have all the ingredients??!!??! So much for eating healthy….
Bacon. ‘Nuf said.
you are KILLING ME! having said that, thank you, just found my new fav popcor recipe!
Joy, I kind of fall in love with you a little more with every post. And this one, I gotta say, I’m head over heels now. Kettle corn AND bacon? You’ve just become my new favorite person.
Have you seen the bacon and cashew caramel corn in the September issue of Bon Appetit? Because I sure have. I actually woke up planning to make some and then saw your kettle corn. Guess who’s making both?! One can never have too much bacon and sugary popcorn goodness – right Joy?
Williams Sonoma has a new maple/bacon (bacon/maple?) rub that sounds really good and I was thinking there had to be a way to make it from scratch *and* use it in other ways – and here you are! What a great idea, both from scratch and used in a totally different way. Sounds yummy.
my absolute favorite is taking popcorn and covering it with cajun seasoning and salt. So you get that spicey kick. So delicious!
Yesterday i made the husby and i some BLT’s, and for the first time in my life i actually saved the bacon grease. I know now that this was *meant* to be.
Dude, I hope you have baker’s block more often if this is the sort of thing that comes out of it!!! Best. Idea. Ever.
Nice new layout! All the same though, way to be blooming as a food blogger, just in the last bit, i;ve realized you kept constant, but changed also. WAY TO BE.
Joy,
I made your “Big Fat Bolognese Sauce” this past weekend and my son said it was restaurant quality! I loved the comment that it will help me get a man; I am trying that theory out next week. Now I see this recipe for maple bacon popcorn… I think this with the Bolognese I may have him hooked. THANK YOU!
Delicious! Love this corn. You should definitely get a patent on this stuff. Yum!
Here’s my comment: holy freakin crap.
Bacon?
Maple Syrup?
Popcorn?
Dreams do come true. Can’t wait to make this!
This sounds like such an amazing/addiciting combination! I love it!
Mmmm… maple and bacon. Also a great combo for donuts: maple glaze with bacon crumbled on top. But I’ll take the kettle corn, too. Love the autumn header, btw.
I have a kettle corn problem too. And obviously a bacon one. And I MIGHT have a maple one too. Also? My computer is ALWAYS sticky. It’s bad.
your new fall header is magic!
For some reason I can’t get into bacon and sweet stuff together. However, this post led me to your other post on kettle corn and I have to say a HUGE thank you for that recipe! I love how it’s uber- simple but incredibly delicious. My whole family is addicted! You’re awesome.
Joy, I really like the fall picture at the top of your home page! It’s soooooo cute!
Bacon, popcorn, maple syrup….now that’s what I’m talking about!
OOoh holy moly! This is awesome.
Thanks for another great recipe for tailgating!
WOW!!! Does this ever look fabulous! I love bacon & maple syrup!
Cheers! Leslie
Dear Joy: I found your blog very recently while trying to find a recipe for the perfect berry birthday cake for my little man’s 3rd birthday..it went over quite well, thank you. However, I have now become enraptured-no, addicted to your blog. You are too awesome and I think you should know I’m falling in love with you. And then you put maple on bacon on popcorn… colour me infatuated! I know you will be a great wife and mother one day because you are so much like me! ;) Or I’m like you? When’s your birthday? Beautiful, talented and witty…you got it all, girl! I am a little jealous of your family life… my mom is no baker, even though she thinks she is. Also, that letter is a great idea, I should have informed my husband (not a big sweets fan) when we met that my love often comes in the form of cupcakes… now I’m stuck eating the cake while I make him deviled eggs and perogis LOL Good thing my kid is getting older…help mommy eat the cake sweetie! So glad I found your blog, keep up the good work!!
Oh, evil!! I love popcorn–I seriously have it at least 5 nights a week. Usually I pop it in canola oil and satisfy myself with a sprinkling of salt . . . but this would add decadence to the max!
Looks delicious. My brain exploded by just looking at that equation!
Wait…
You didn’t think you had to ship any of that to New Zealand, orrrr…what?
No! No! That’s totally fine. I’m not mad at all. I don’t think that’s selfish at all. I’m not going to die without a taste of kettle bacon corn… at all.
Furious in New Zealand,
Sarah
Er…. so, popcorn is still a healthy snack, right? I WANT THIS.
That’s a pretty original recipe! I’d like to have some in front of my computer!
You have totally lost your mind and I love it! Cooking popcorn kernels in bacon grease…OMG! How did you come up with that. I love it! I will definately try this recipe.
I forgot to tell you that I love your new header for your blog…It is so adorable and so Fall !!!