Homemade Caramel Corn
Homemade caramel corn is the ultimate movie-night snack! This recipe is sweet, salty, crunchy, and makes a huge batch – perfect for sharing with friends and neighbors or making for a party.
Servings 12
Ingredients
- 2 bags microwave popcorn popped (see notes)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups lightly packed light brown sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup light corn syrup
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°F. Line two large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Lightly spray a very large mixing bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Add the popped popcorn. Set aside.
- Measure out the vanilla and baking soda and set aside.
- In a large saucepan, add the brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon. As soon as the mixture is at a steady boil, set a timer for 5 minutes. Continue to boil, stirring constantly.
- When the timer goes off, remove the pan from the heat and immediately add the vanilla and baking soda and stir vigorously to combine. The mixture will bubble up and hiss when you add these ingredients, so stand back a bit.
- Immediately pour the hot caramel over the popcorn and carefully stir to coat the popcorn with the caramel. Once the popcorn is well coated, divide it between the two prepared baking sheets, spreading into an even layer. Some of the popcorn will clump together - that’s ok. Just spread it out as best you can.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
- Let the caramel corn cool on the baking sheets, breaking apart any large clumps as it cools.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Notes
I like to use classic butter microwave popcorn for this recipe. If you want to use stove-popped or air-popped popcorn, you will need to pop ⅔ cup kernels. If you leave it unsalted, increase the salt in the caramel recipe.
If you have the time, I recommend sifting through the popcorn to remove any unpopped kernels before you start making the caramel sauce. You can pick them out while the caramel corn is cooling later, but it is much harder to do at that point.
Honey works well in this recipe in place of the corn syrup.
For additional crunch, you can add up to 1 cup of dry roasted peanuts to the popcorn before adding the caramel sauce.
If you don’t have a mixing bowl large enough to mix the popcorn and caramel sauce together, lightly spray the inside of a paper grocery bag with nonstick cooking spray and mix the popcorn and caramel in that.