It's not too late to make
something affordable and tasty as a holiday gift. Caramel popcorn, made from scratch from freshly popped popcorn is pretty fabulous and quite inexpensive. The basic process consists of freshly popping popcorn, then coating it in a caramel coating made with butter, sugar, corn syrup and flavorings. But that's just the basic variety; there are a number of additional ingredients and flavorings. Peanuts, chocolate chips, other nuts, chili, orange peel . . . there's a lot of room for ingenuity and variety.
The recipes all suggest coating the mixing bowl with oil; do not skip this step. It makes coating the popcorn with the caramel syrup easier, and it makes an enormous difference later when you're cleaning up.
The basic recipe here calls for five quarts of popped popcorn, and butter; don't skip the butter. The butter is half the taste. Make it and share it with friends. You'll notice several of the recipes call for baking soda; that helps the syrup harden so it's not sticky. There's a fast microwave method for making caramel popcorn too, for those in a hurry. Personally, I'm intrigued by this New York Times recipe for Spicy Caramel Popcorn. There's something to be said for sweet and spicy, with just a touch of salty. But the one that struck me as the one to make this holiday season is one from Orangette, called Caramel Corn with Salted Peanuts. The blogger Orangette is better known as cookbook author Molly Wizenberg, who has a charming anecdote about exactly how she re-discovered the caramel popcorn she'd had years ago in a restaurant.