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This Caramel Popcorn is sweet, crunchy, and delicious. This caramel corn is a soft and chewy homemade treat that will just melt in your mouth! This will be the key to enjoying movie nights, school lunches, sports events, and more.
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My favorite caramel corn recipe. So good and even better it’s quick and easy!
Easy Caramel Corn
Popcorn can’t get any better than this! You only need a few easy ingredients to make it and each one forms this recipe into one incredible snack. The glossy caramel-coated popcorn is an eye-popping treat by itself, but the flavor will have everyone wanting to devour a whole bowl of it!
Caramel Corn is a very classic recipe, so if you haven’t heard about it or tried it, now is the time to change your life! This popcorn is just the perfect treat to enjoy anytime and anywhere. It isn’t too tacky or sticky, so you don’t have to worry about it getting all over your hands while you eat it.
Key Ingredients You’ll Need
Popcorn: You will need to pop your popcorn and have it ready to use with your other ingredients. You can use jiffy pop, microwavable popcorn, etc.
Brown Sugar: This combined with butter, corn syrup, and salt will make the base of the caramel. You can add vanilla once it’s boiled for flavor.
Baking Soda: This will be a key ingredient for the caramel to become soft and not too hard.
How To Make Caramel Popcorn
Step 1. In a large bowl, add the popped popcorn and set aside. Put the brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, and salt into a large saucepan and allow the ingredients to cook to a boil over medium heat. Stir the mixture constantly for about 5 minutes. Take off the heat and add in the vanilla and baking soda. Combine and add on top of the popcorn in the bowl. Use a spatula to fold and coat the popcorn in the caramel mixture. On two 13×9-inch baking pans greased with non-stick spray, pour the coated popcorn and spread evenly.
Step 2. In a 250-degree oven, place the pans and bake for 45 minutes. Mix the popcorn every 15 minutes until fully baked. Allow the popcorn to cool before serving. Enjoy!
Why Is My Caramel Popcorn Sticky?
You may find that your recipe comes out too sticky or tacky. The reason for this could be from you not cooking it at the proper temperature.
Why Do I Need Baking Soda In This Recipe?
Baking soda is important in this recipe because it reacts with brown sugar and corn syrup to make carbon dioxide bubbles of air. It will cause it to become frothy which makes the caramel a lot softer. You don’t want to go to bite into the popcorn and break your teeth basically. You want it to be chewy and soft.
How To Store Caramel Popcorn?
You will want to place the cooled leftovers in an airtight container or Ziplock bag for the best storage method. This will last about one week at room temperature.
Can This Homemade Recipe Be Frozen?
You will want to avoid putting this caramel corn in the freezer. If frozen, the moisture after thawing will cause the popcorn to become soggy and we don’t want that!
Tips & Tricks
You can use air-popped or microwave popcorn for this recipe. I like to use plain and unflavored.
To add more of a salted caramel corn flavor to this recipe, you can use salted butter.
To reduce a mess and make the cooling process even easier, use a sheet pan! You can also use parchment paper or a silicone mat on the bottom of the pan.
To avoid having crunchier then needed, try to remove as many seeds as you can out of the popcorn!
More Popcorn Recipes:
- Peppermint Bark Popcorn
- Apple Pie Bourbon Flavored Popcorn Mix
- Valentine Popcorn
- Peanut Butter Popcorn
Add as Google Trusted SourceCaramel Popcorn (Quick and Easy)
Ingredients
- 6 Qt. popcorn, popped
- 2 cups brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup butter, cubed
- 1/2 cup corn syrup
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Instructions
- Place popcorn in a large bowl and set aside. In a large saucepan, combine the brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.
- Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla and baking soda; mix well. Pour over popcorn and stir until well-coated.
- Pour into two greased 13×9-in. baking pans. Bake, uncovered, at 250° for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool completely. Store in airtight containers.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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How much is cups is 6 quarts of unpopped popcorn?? Thanks.
Hi Fran. Approximately 3/4 cup of kernels will yield 6 quart popped.
My favorite caramel corn recipe. So good and even better it’s quick and easy!
Thank you Diane!
Delicious
Thanks Lynn!
Addicting. So good! So much caramel. I followed the recipe. I did wait til a full boil before I set the timer. And I stirred frequently. I used 2 large sided cookie sheets and that worked for me.