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Grandma’s Soft & Chewy Caramel Corn is what I grew up eating. This is a classic caramel corn recipe that is a true Malad, Idaho treat! This no bake caramel corn popcorn is my favorite!

 

 

If you’ve ever wondered how to make no bake caramel popcorn, then I have the recipe for you!

My grandmother, Donna Bowen, was an amazing cook.

That woman would show her love for you through her cooking.

If you came to visit her, you knew you’d be fed and fed well.

There was no possible way to get around a meal with grandma.

Not that you’d want to really, since she knew how to cook.

After she passed away a few years ago, several of us grandchildren sat around and read her journals.

Perhaps that seemed morbid or an invasion of privacy.

 

 

However I felt that it was a way to get to know my grandmother better.  

A way for her to live on and to understand her and her trials.

In on of her journals, she wrote about how her daughter and her daughter’s family were coming to lunch one day.

She then wrote about what she made for lunch.

I don’t remember the exact details but it was something close to this:

A ham, homemade rolls, jello, carrots, mashed potatoes, a green salad and 2 pies for dessert with homemade whipped cream.  

This was LUNCH for a total of 6 people at most (as some of the daughters children didn’t come).

 

 

As I said, my grandmother showed her love by cooking and baking for you.  

If you had a favorite dessert or meal, you were guaranteed to get it again!

One of the things I’ve tried to do (slowly) is to accumulate some of my grandmothers best recipes, and put them here on Num’s the Word.

This is a way to pay tribute to her as well as share her recipes with the world.

This is my Grandma’s Soft & Chewy Caramel Corn popcorn recipe.

It is this recipe that I grew up on, loved and craved.

 

 

It wasn’t until my 20’s that I had even heard of crunchy caramel corn.  

The idea was so foreign to me that I instantly rejected it because it wasn’t soft and chewy.

Over time I came to like it, but this recipe for soft caramel corn popcorn has always been my favorite.

The problem with this recipe is that I’m not really sure it’s my grandmothers.

Perhaps it is.  Well, it will always be my Grandma’s Soft & Chewy Caramel Corn recipe.

But it’s also an entire towns recipe too.

Let me explain.

 

 

My grandmother was born in, raised in, and lived most of her life in, and then died in, a small town on the boarder of Idaho called Malad, Iadaho.

Also known as Malad City, Idaho it is 13 miles from the Utah boarder.

I am what I refer to as Malad Stock.

I was born there, my dad was born there, my grandparents were born there, my great grandparents were born there – you get the picture.

Though I have no proof, I claim that at least half town town is a cousin of some sort. 

The other half  moved there at one point and stayed – though they too may be a cousin of mine through marriage somehow.

 

 

Despite being born there, we moved when I was a toddler and so I technically claim Washington State as my “home”. 

So this recipe for my Grandmother’s Soft & Chewy Caramel Corn is in a family cookbook with her name attached – as well as a cousin of sorts.  

They both claimed it as their recipe.

However I suspect the relative got it from my grandmother so really we’ll say it’s hers.

All is well, it’s grandma’s recipe, no argument there.

Well that was until this summer I was flipping through a new-to-me cookbook that I nabbed for inspiration.

The cookbook was old and had recipes submitted by people all over the country.

 

 

As I was flipping through the candy section there were several caramel popcorn recipes. 

As I was reading through them, one of them was the exact same recipe as this.

Though not submitted by my grandmother, it was submitted by someone from Malad, Idaho.

Interesting coincidence.

I then grabbed a cookbook my grandmother had given me almost 20 years ago that her town had put together.

In that cookbook there were 6 recipes for caramel popcorn – all spread out in the candy section and all different people who submitted the recipes.

5 of those had the same ingredients as my grandmothers – all submitted by different women.

 

 

So now we are up to 7 people plus a relative who all claim this recipe to be their’s.  

All of those people lived in Malad, Idaho.

I’m sure if another cookbook from Malad, Idaho were to be found, there would be even more of this recipe in them.

And so my friends, though I call this my Grandmother’s Recipe, it is in the sense that it’s the only caramel corn recipe I can recall her ever making.

She may or may not have invented the recipe.  We’ll never know.

But what I do know, is that the people of Malad, Idaho sure do know how to make a tasty batch of caramel corn!

If you are ever in town and find a local who has lived there their entire life, ask them to make you a batch of caramel corn.

Chances are they’ll make you this recipe.

 

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