Freaky Hot Wing Popcorn

Ingredients

Nonstick vegetable spray - vegan use vegan spray

Popcorn from recipe found here

Or 8 cups of plain popped popcorn - or pop your own -like Orville Redenbachers

¾ Cups granulated sugar

¼ Franks Red Hot Original Sauce - If vegan use vinegar based vegan hot sauce

3 Tbs unsalted butter cut into tiny pieces - if vegan use vegan butter

1 tsp kosher salt

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 300. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper – allow enough that you can fold the sides and ends up. Coat the parchment paper and a large kitchen bowl with cooking spray. Bowl should be large enough to hold all of the popcorn – this is where you will coat the popcorn. Set the bowl and the baking sheet aside. Have the popcorn in a separate bowl for now.

Bring sugar and ¼ cup water to a boil over medium high heat in a sauce pan. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Once the mixture is boiling – lift the pan and give it a swirl every 30 secs or so. Do not mix with a spoon and do not try to scrape what forms on the sides of the pan into the mix. Just swirl. In 10-12 minutes the mixture will turn a deep amber caramel color. Remove the pan from the heat now.

Stir in the butter and hot sauce. This will cause a lot of sizzling noise and the mix will bubble furiously. Return to the stove top and return to a boil for another 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and working quickly add the salt, baking soda and cayenne and stir those in. When you add the baking soda a strange reaction will happen and the mix will change to an orange color – don’t worry – it is supposed to do that – just keep working.

Into the prepared bowl, add some popcorn and a little sauce, then more popcorn and more sauce. Make about 4 layers. Then with a spatula or wooden spoon gently mix the popcorn so that it all become coated with the sauce. Pour the popcorn into your prepared baking dish and continues to stir to coat the popcorn. (Immediately put your sauce pan and your bowl in the sink and run warm water into them).

Spread the popcorn out onto the baking sheet and place into the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the tray and mix the popcorn. Place back in the oven and bake for another 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before serving.