Caramel popcorn

What is it?

Popped corn coated in crunchy caramel. Popcorn has always been popular in both savoury and sweet forms, but caramel popcorn is now turning up as a garnish for everything from chocolate mousse and cheesecake to cupcakes.

Where is it?

NSW

At The Morrison in George Street, Sydney, chef Sean Connolly serves caramel popcorn on a choc brownie with malted milk ice-cream, and at Rockpool Bar & Grill, a glass jar of close-to-perfect caramel popcorn arrives at the end of the meal.

At Mexico Food & Liquor, the tarta de dulce de leche is covered in spiced and candied popcorn that is so good it could well be sent out as a stand-alone dessert. Chef Javier Carmona uses fennel, coriander and cumin seeds alongside turmeric and chilli, and inspired the recipe on this page. ''It's worth popping your own corn, to avoid any stale popcorn issues'' he says. ''And move the pot around so you evenly cook the corn and don't burn it.''

Gena Karpf, director of Sweetness The Patisserie, takes time off from her famous marshmallows to turn out bucketloads of crisp and crunchy caramel popcorn, the corn popped on the cook-top rather than microwaved. As she says, it's ''a very caramel-intensive kitchen'', so it pays us to heed her advice on making the caramel. ''Get yourself a sugar thermometer,'' she says. ''Don't go by time or by colour, but by temperature. And you have to not be afraid.''

VICTORIA

Nobody would be surprised if Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio's Darren Purchese was appointed an Order of Australia - or at least received a sainthood - for his popcorn honeycomb rubble, an addictive combo of crunchy ''rooftop honey'' honeycomb, smooth Belgian milk chocolate and freshly popped corn. ''We have had customers coming in and buying up 20 or 30 bags at a time,'' he says. ''We also have a caramelised popcorn ice-cream on a stick that is dipped in white chocolate that we are excited about.''

At Southbank's Trocadero, chef Nick Bennett layers popcorn crumble in a now-famous dessert with caramel cooked cream, pear and chocolate; at Trunk Diner, Orazio Cutuli dishes up hot buttered popcorn and salted caramel popcorn. Dessert chef Pierre Roelofs does a hot popcorn soup served with salted caramel and crushed caramel popcorn at his Thursday dessert nights at Cafe Rosamond.

But you won't find caramel popcorn on the restless menu of LuxBite patisserie in South Yarra. As Bernard Chu explains, they banned it to further their own creativity. ''We used to do caramel popcorn,'' he says, ''but it sold too well.''

Why do I care?

Because it's cheap, fun and good to share.

Can I do it at home?

Yes, with a pack of popping corn (dried corn kernels) from the supermarket. Making the caramel is the ''face-your-fear'' moment, but with care and a sugar thermometer, you'll be caramelised in no time.

TRENDING Jujubes - a south-east Asian fruit grown in Mildura and sold fresh, or dried as ''red dates'' for nibbling or brewing into tea. Try Leaf Store, Elwood or jujubeaustralia.com.

Sourcing it

VICTORIA

Burch & Purchese, 647 Chapel Street, South Yarra, 9827 7060

Trunk Diner, 275 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, 9663 7994

Trocadero, Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall, Southbank, 8698 8888

Cafe Rosamond, rear 191a Smith Street, Fitzroy, 9419 2270

NSW

Sweetness The Patisserie, 38 Oxford Street, Epping 9869 3800

Rockpool Bar & Grill, 66 Hunter Street, Sydney 8078 1900

Mexico Food & Liquor, 17 Randle Street, Surry Hills 9211 7798

The Morrison Bar and Oyster Room, 225 George Street, Sydney 9247 6744

Caramel popcorn

Serve as a sweet snack, or use as a garnish on cake, dessert, meringue, ice-cream and chocolate mousse.

INGREDIENTS
2 tbsp grapeseed or vegetable oil

100g popping corn

100g butter

150g brown sugar

3 tbsp honey or golden syrup

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Heat the oil and three corn kernels in a large pan, lid on, over medium heat. As soon as they pop, add the remaining corn, cover and cook for three minutes, shaking the pan vigorously every 30 seconds. Keep warm.

2. Melt the butter, sugar, honey, spices and salt in a heavy saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring. Boil for about eight minutes without stirring, until the caramel is golden brown and coats the back of a spoon (about 140C /280F on a sugar thermometer). Stir in the bicarbonate of soda and pour over the popcorn, folding with a wooden spoon (be careful, it's burning-hot) until coated. Spread out on the baking tray to cool, then break up and store in an airtight container.

Makes Five cups

CLARIFICATION: The original recipe gave the temperature of the caramel in farenheit only. We have added in the celcius conversion as well.