Homemade Caramel Popcorn | Easy Recipe

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Homemade caramel popcorn. Easy recipe to make your own sweet and salty snack, with just a few simple ingredients.

Popcorn is one of our favorite snacks to eat at home. Whether it be with a movie, after dinner, with homemade hot chocolate. We are always making popcorn in this household. But sometimes you need something sweet and salty.

This homemade caramel popcorn recipe with chocolate and peanuts, is just the trick.

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When popcorn with extra butter doesn’t fix the snack craving, this recipe sure does. But be sure to make extra, because leftovers keep well, if you can somehow stop yourself from eating the entire bowl.

It might seem complicated, but after a time or two you’ll be a pro at making this sweet and salty snack.

HOMEMADE CARAMEL POPCORN

Ingredients

  • 12 cups popcorn
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup (one stick) butter
  • 1/4 cup light corn syrup
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 6-8 oz. chocolate
  • 1 cup peanuts

Make your popcorn

We prefer to use white popcorn kernels. 1/2 cup kernels will give you about 12 cups of popcorn. Remove all the un-popped kernels and place into a large, deep, tin foil pan.

Popcorn in a large, deep, tin foil pan.

Add your peanuts.

Make your caramel sauce

Don’t run away! Making caramel sauce with light corn syrup is really an easy way to coat your popcorn with only minimum stress that you’ll mess up.

In a saucepan add 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup light corn syrup.

*Tip- If you run out of brown sugar, you can use white sugar and add 1-2 TBS molasses.

Making caramel in a saucepan.

Bring to medium heat and stir occasionally, either with a metal spoon or swirling the pan. Bring to a bubble and continue to cook an additional 4-5 minutes.

Remove from heat and add 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. baking soda. Stir.

The baking soda will cause it to bubble, which is perfect for the popcorn.

Bubbly caramel.

Pour caramel over popcorn

Pour caramel over popcorn and very quickly mix it with spatulas or serving spoons. As it will begin to cool and be more difficult to stir together.

Caramel mixture being pour onto popcorn and peanuts.

Bake one hour

Bake at 200° for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool

Stirred to coat popcorn.

Melt your chocolate

Melt your chocolate and pour onto cooled popcorn.

You can either melt your chocolate in the microwave at half power, or using a double broiler.

If your chocolate does seize (meaning it is no longer melting and beginning to be more like play dough than drizzle like) put it in a piping bag (careful as it might be hot) and pipe onto the top. Mix to combine.

At this point you can either cool it in the refrigerated as is (with the chocolate drizzled on top) or you can mix it all together. (preferred method is to mix, if your chocolate has seized.)

Melted chocolate in a mixing bag.
Piped chocolate that has seized.

Refrigerate

Refrigerate 30 minutes or until fully cooled.

Cooled chocolate caramel popcorn.

How to store leftover caramel popcorn

You can store leftover caramel popcorn in an air tight container such as Tupperware or a glass jar. We’ve kept ours in glass jars in the fridge and the next day they are perfectly crunchy.

I’d love to tell you how long leftovers keep, but we’ve never had leftovers past 24 hours. By general rule, I would expect this to keep about 3 days. Use your best judgement.

Popcorn stored in a glass jar.

With this homemade caramel popcorn recipe, you can make your own sweet and salty snack to enjoy anytime. So try not to overthink the process and give it a go!

Best Wishes! ~Sara

Homemade caramel popcorn

Homemade caramel popcorn recipe for a sweet and salty snack.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Total Time1 hour 15 minutes
Course: Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: caramel, chocolate,, popcorn
Servings: 10
Calories: 390kcal

Ingredients

  • 12 cups popcorn
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 6-8 oz chocolate
  • 1 cup peanuts

Instructions

  • Pop your popcorn and remove the un-popped kernels. Place in large, deep, tin foil pan.
  • Add peanuts to popcorn.
  • In a saucepan add 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup light corn syrup.
  • Bring to medium heat and stir occasionally with spoon or by swirling the pan.
  • Bring to a bubble and continue to cook an additional 4-5 minutes.
  • Remove from heat and add 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. baking soda. Stir
  • Pour caramel over popcorn and very quickly mix it with spatulas or serving spoons.
  • Bake at 200° for one hour. Stir every 15 minutes.
  • Melt your chocolate.
  • Pour over top of popcorn. Leave as is or mix to coat.
  • Refrigerate 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Notes

If you don’t have brown sugar, you can use white sugar and add 1-2 TBS molasses. 
*Nutritional information provided is an estimate and will vary based on brands of ingredients used and cooking methods. 

Nutrition

Serving: 10g | Calories: 390kcal | Carbohydrates: 45g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 356mg | Potassium: 223mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 31g | Vitamin A: 310IU | Calcium: 34mg | Iron: 1mg
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