Moose Munch

Have any of you ever been to Harry & David's? It's a fancy store that sells all kinds of chocolates, gourmet nuts, etc. They have this butter toffee popcorn that comes in all sorts of varieties called Moose Munch. It's one of my favorite treats of all time. However, one teeny weeny bag will cost you about $8.00! So, this year I set out to try to recreate their recipe on my own. I think I got it REALLY close--but it took a couple tries. On my first try I burned all the caramel corn, including the cashews and almonds. *sigh* It took me 2 days to get over my frustration, but I tried it all over again today. Success! It's delicious! I'm planning on giving away some as soon as it all cools off and I can package it up. I started with the caramel corn recipe from OurBestBites.com, but I have to say that when I followed their baking directions, that is how mine got burned. I'm assuming it's due to the higher altitude where I live. So here's how I adapted their recipe to suit my ambitious copycat of Moose Munch:

16 C popped popcorn (about 1 C. kernels--i just popped mine in oil in a pot on the stove)
1.5 C brown sugar
1/4 c + 1/8 c white Karo syrup
1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp salt (if you are using salted microwave popcorn then omit salt here)
1.5 sticks of real butter
1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp (would this be 3/4tsp? oh man) baking soda
1.5 tsp vanilla

cashew halves, salted
roasted almonds, salted
really good quality semi-sweet chocolate (please don't use Nestle's/hersheys! blech!)
half a bag of toffee chips

Pop popcorn and set aside. Place brown sugar, Karo syrup, salt, and butter in a microwave safe dish. I cut up the butter into chunks so it melts better. Microwave for 30-45 seconds. That should be enough to melt the butter at least half way. Stir it all to combine. Now microwave on high for 2 minutes. Take it out and stir. Microwave for 2 more minutes.

Then add the baking soda & vanilla. It will foam a bit, that's normal. Pour all over popcorn and toss well, leaving a little bit of the caramel to toss your nuts in. I recommend finding the biggest bowl you can find. I bought a HUGE one at Smith & Edwards (it rocks). If you don't have a big bowl--good luck to you. Ha ha ha. After that, pour popcorn into two greased jelly roll pans (cookie sheets with about 1.5" sides on it). Spread it out as best you can. Then quickly toss your cashews and almonds into the remaining caramel you left in the bowl. Just eyeball it. Then take a spoon and drop the gooey nuts all over the popcorn that is already sitting in your cookie sheets. Bake one sheet at a time at 250 for about 26 minutes. If you live in a lower elevation, you might want to try what ourbestbites recommends for cooking times, but that is what burned my popcorn in the first place. As soon as you remove the popcorn from the oven, sprinkle toffee chips all over it and toss well. Let cool until nice and crunchy. Then drizzle as much chocolate on your popcorn as you'd like. My chocolate was a tad on the "dark" side, so I did one sheet with a TON of chocolate on it, and mixed it with the other sheet that had hardly any chocolate on it so it wouldn't be too rich. Wait until your chocolate has completely cooled before you do any mixing or packing! Enjoy!!