Lantern Cracker Jack

Name: Lantern Cracker Jack
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: asian
Ingredients: 8 cups freshly popped popcorn (from about 1/3 cup raw kernels); 2 cups plain puffed rice; 2 cups roasted, salted peanuts; 1/3 cup raw corn kernels; 1/4 cup black sesame seeds; 1 teaspoon five-spice powder (recipe follows); 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, sifted; 1 stick unsalted butter; 1 cup light-brown sugar, firmly packed; 1/3 cup sorghum (see note); 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

By Monica Segovia-Welsh

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Rating: 4(29)
Notes: Read community notes

Featured in: Lantern Cracker Jack

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Ingredients

Yield:Serves 6

8cups freshly popped popcorn (from about ⅓ cup raw kernels)
2cups plain puffed rice
2cups roasted, salted peanuts
⅓cup raw corn kernels
¼cup black sesame seeds
1teaspoon five-spice powder (recipe follows)
¼teaspoon baking soda, sifted
1stick unsalted butter
1cup light-brown sugar, firmly packed
⅓cup sorghum (see note)
½teaspoon kosher salt
½teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

Step 1
Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread the popcorn, rice and peanuts evenly on the sheet pan and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the sesame seeds, five-spice powder and baking soda and set aside.
Step 2
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the brown sugar, sorghum and salt and stir to dissolve. Bring the mixture to a boil and continue to cook until the syrup reaches 250 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 5 minutes. Immediately remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract and sesame-seed mixture. Stir quickly with a wooden spoon to combine.
Step 3
Pour the hot syrup evenly over the popcorn and nuts.
Step 4
Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes to coat evenly. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature.

Ratings

4 out of 5

29 user ratings

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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Valerie4 years ago

Where is the recipe for the five-spice powder, or the note on sorghum?

Nick52801 year ago

wooden spoon does matter, metal heat fluctuates too much. be gentle, but move quickly and vigorously when turning the coated candy or else you end up with uneven clumps, hard caramel chunks and uncoated cereal.

Margaret4 years ago

I don’t love five spice powder, so I used garam masala instead. Also didn’t want to buy sorghum syrup for just this recipe, so I used 1/2 barley syrup and 1/2 corn syrup. And my local grocer had only puffed kamut. This was great, even with all the substitutions - a versatile recipe that accommodates a lot of tweaking for taste and availability of ingredients.

Valerie4 years ago

Where is the recipe for the five-spice powder, or the note on sorghum?

Janice Byer4 years ago

I have the same question. Sorghum is a grain, yet the instructions make it sound like sorghum syrup, though it makes no sense for "sorghum" to refer to the syrup. .

Carol4 years ago

When does one use the raw corn kernels?

Baxter4 years ago

You have to pop the raw kernels to get the 8 cups of popped corn.

Litegal6 years ago

Yes! I loved this! Halved recipe and I'm kicking myself for not making a full batch. Had to cobble the 5 spice mix up myself and substituted a mix of barley syrup & corn syrup for the sorghum (takes me 30 minutes to get to nearest store and I wasn't about to wait). The 5 spice is barely noticeable ... and yet stays on your tongue in the most tantalizing manner. And I love the addition of puffed rice. Such a nice change of pace. Many thanks for recipe!

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