Revamp Movie Night
Turn plain popcorn into a gooey-good snack with this easy homemade caramel corn recipe. With extra sauce for drizzling, it’s sure to be a family favourite; perhaps even a new holiday tradition that your friends will request every year!
Here’s how to make the best caramel corn recipe:
Start with your favorite plain popped popcorn— and lots of it. 8 cups should be enough for about 8 people. Be sure to pick through and remove any un-popped kernels. Next, make the caramel. If you’ve never made caramel before, get pumped! This delicious confection is easy to make as long as you pay attention to it. So at this point in the recipe, don’t walk away from that stove!
Once you’ve boiled together some sugar, butter, light corn syrup and molasses to make caramel, you’ll divide that mixture into two saucepans. Half of the caramel is for stirring into the popcorn right away and half is for drizzling on top at the end. Trust us, it’s worth the extra dish.
Just toss the popcorn with half of the caramel, spread out on a parchment-lined baking sheet (so that it doesn’t stick!) and bake for about an hour. Serve with the extra caramel, or save it for dolloping on top of your favourite dessert recipes.
YIELDS: 8 servings
TOTAL TIME:1 hour 30 mins
Ingredients
- 8 c. plain popped popcorn
- 1 c. packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1/4 c. light corn syrup
- 2 tbsp. molasses
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1 c. heavy cream
Directions
- Heat oven to 200°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place popcorn in a large bowl next to the stove. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, butter, corn syrup and molasses. Put another empty small saucepan next to it. While stirring, bring sugar mixture to a boil. Boil 5 minutes, stirring.
- Carefully pour half of mixture into the empty saucepan. Stir baking soda into 1 pan, then immediately pour over popcorn. Using a silicone spatula, fold syrup into popcorn to coat, then spread on prepared sheet.
- Bake popcorn, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
- Meanwhile, make caramel drizzle: While stirring, bring reserved syrup to a boil, carefully add cream and boil 1 minute. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until cold. Use caramel to drizzle over popcorn or serve over cake, ice cream or pie. Makes 8 cups popcorn and 1½ cups caramel drizzle.
Nutritional information (per serving): Caramel corn only, about 160 calories, 6 g fat (3.5 g saturated), 1 g protein, 50 mg sodium, 26 g carbohydrates, 1 g fibre
Enjoy!
