Recipe for Caramel Corn

No holiday gift or snack is quite as scrumptious as this recipe for caramel corn. It features freshly popped popcorn coated in a sweet homemade caramel sauce.

Several years back, I got the bright idea of making homemade caramel corn to take to Thanksgiving to help sustain us until dinnertime. Not only was it a hit with the kids (and kept them considerably more patient) but the adults seemed to delight in being able to grab a handful of something to snack on! This is now my personal Thanksgiving tradition. 

But this delicious snack has many more uses than that! This gluten-free recipe for caramel corn is very easy and extremely inexpensive to make. I bet you even have most of the homemade caramel sauce ingredients in your kitchen right now, like honey, butter, brown sugar, and vanilla or butter flavoring. When combined with freshly popped popcorn, this caramel corn is so irresistible and addictive! It has a long shelf-life, but we all know it won’t last long!

This caramel corn recipe makes a lovely gift when packaged in a clear cellophane bag and tied with a little ribbon, like our picture above. Other snacks I love to gift during the holidays include candied peanuts or candied pecans, iced oatmeal cookies, and my 3-ingredient Oreo cookie balls. 

Let’s gather in the kitchen and make us up a batch!

Recipe Ingredients

• Popped popcorn
• Honey
• Unsalted butter
• Brown sugar (you can use either dark or light brown sugar)
• Salt
• Baking soda
• Vanilla extract
• Butter flavoring (or just use more vanilla instead)

How To Make Homemade Caramel Corn

1. Make Popcorn the Old-Fashioned Way

First, we’re gonna make some plain popcorn on the stovetop, the old-fashioned way.

Heat some oil in a large pot. I used about 1/3 cup of vegetable oil.

I love to use coconut oil (refined if you don’t like the taste of coconut or unrefined if you like a little coconut flavor).

Pour in your popcorn kernels. I just have plain old kernels here. I am using about a cup and a half or so.

Normally, I would sprinkle about a teaspoon of salt over this but I am going to use salt in my sauce so we’re good.

Place this over medium to medium-high heat and listen for it to start sizzling a bit. Stay close by!

Now put a lid on your pot and continue cooking it on medium heat. It will take a few minutes for the kernels to get hot but once they do they will start popping all over the place!

Warning: If you’ve never made homemade popcorn before, please don’t forget the lid on your pot. Popcorn projectiles are VERY hot.

When it starts popping, I hold the handles of my pot and shake it gently from side to side to help get my kernels on the bottom distributed better so they will pop evenly.

Keep the lid on and keep the pot sitting on the eye or burner (for the Northerners reading this).

Once it stops popping, immediately remove the pot from the stove and pour the popcorn out into a heat-safe bowl or pan of some sort. This is your finished popcorn.

I pop three big pots of this whenever I make caramel popcorn and end up with about three gallons of popped popcorn. Let’s make the caramel now!

2. Make the Homemade Caramel Sauce

For the caramel part of this recipe for caramel corn, you’ll need the rest of the ingredients that were listed in the ingredient listed and pictured above.  In case you need a refresher those were:

• Salt
• Honey
• Vanilla
• Butter
• Baking Soda
• Brown Sugar

In a heavy saucepot, place your butter, brown sugar, honey, and salt.

Stir that up a bit and turn the heat on medium.

Stir constantly while everything melts and it comes to a boil.

Once it comes to a boil, stop stirring and let boil for about three minutes, undisturbed.

Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

Here’s a tip about the pan…

You need to use a pan with a rim on it because we’re going to stir it every 15 minutes and you don’t want to drop a ton of popcorn into the bottom of your oven (which I always do anyway).

Once it has boiled for three minutes, remove the saucepot from the heat and add in your baking soda.

This will make it foam up a bit, just stir it a little.

Now add in your vanilla and butter flavoring. 

If you don’t have butter flavoring just use more vanilla in its place.

Pour 1/2 of your popcorn into a dishpan or very large bowl.

Pour 1/2 of the caramel mixture over the popcorn and give it a good stir.

Spread your homemade caramel corn onto your prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining popcorn and caramel mixture.

Place these sheets in the oven at 250 for 1 hour, stirring the popcorn mixture every 15 minutes with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.

NOTE: I have to use two baking sheets to be able to hold all of my caramel popcorn. After the first half an hour, I swap the sheets so the bottom one is on the top and the top on the bottom.

I set my oven timer for 15 minutes so I can remember.

After an hour, take it out and let it cool. It will look all golden and pretty like this. 

I package mine in these inexpensive clear party favor bags. I get them on the party favor aisle at Walmart.

Now you have a great snack or an impressive gift!

Storage

• One of the best things about this recipe for caramel corn is that it lasts forever. Or at least, when stored in an airtight container, it will remain crispy for up to 2 weeks.

Recipe Notes

• If you like, you can add 2 cups of salted peanuts to the baking sheets with the popcorn and coat it all in the caramel sauce.
• Some recipes substitute honey for corn syrup, but I prefer the taste of honey. If you want to use corn syrup though, you’ll want to watch your caramel popcorn in the oven as it might cook more quickly.
• Now, you can cheat and use microwave popcorn, but you want it to be plain (no buttered popcorn). Otherwise, it might be overly sweet. Another option is popping your popcorn in a popcorn maker.

You may also like these other caramel recipes:

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Unbelievably Blissful

Caramel Apple Dump Cake Tasty and Delicious

Slow Cooker Caramel Apple Cider

Butter Caramel Puff Corn

Easy Apple-Caramel Pie

Caramel Apple Cake from Mama Reed

 

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