Caramel Popcorn without the Corn Syrup

As part of my every day diet I refuse to eat anything that has HFGC (other wise known as High Fructose Corn Syrup) as well as any other form of corn syrup for that matter. When making Caramel corn 95% of recipes out there contain corn syrup as a main ingredient.

After searching the interweb for what felt like days, but was really probably only 20 minutes, I found this recipe on ehow. It seemed to be a great start so I went with it, making modifications along the way.

Pop 4-5 cups of popcorn in an air popper if at all possible. Place in a large bowl for mixing. Grease a large cookie sheet to place the popcorn on when its finished.

In a pot place:
1 cup sugar
4 tsp dark molasses
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp butter
4 tbsp water
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp baking powder (leave out while boiling)

with a wire whisk stir this mixture until it comes to a soft boil. I do not happen to have a candy thermometer so I just eye ball it for the next 5-8 minutes stirring with whisk constantly. In the recipe I found it says 8-10 minutes, when I went 10 minuets with the next batch I had complete disaster! the caramel became a powdery solid once the baking soda is added. Once the caramel has come to a boil and cooked the amount of time it needs to take off the heat and add the baking powder. The caramel will foam and bubble and then go down. Pour over the popcorn and stir around trying to coat each piece of popcorn. Place popcorn on buttered cookie sheet and wait at least until its room temperature to enjoy, usually about 10-15 minutes. 

Bringing ingredients to boil.

After adding the baking soda

The finished product