Homemade Caramel Corn
Homemade caramel corn is one of those things that seems way harder than it actually is! Did you know it takes less than 20 minutes to make a giant batch of caramel popcorn with no corn syrup required? If you can boil water, I promise you can make my super easy caramel popcorn recipe!
🔍 Recipe At-A-Glance: Homemade Caramel Corn
- ⏰ Prep Time: 10 minutes
- 🕰️ Cook Time: 10 minutes
- ⏱️ Total Time: 20 minutes
- 🍿 Flavor Profile: Sweet, salty, buttery, caramel-tastic with a satisfying crunch!
- 🙅🏻♀️ No Corn Syrup: My recipe has zero corn syrup!
- 🤫 Secret Ingredient: My secret trick makes sure your caramel corn turns out perfect every time (shhhh, it's baking soda).
- 🧡 Difficulty: Wayyyyyyy easier thank you think it is.
"Made this tonight and it was delicious and perfectly crunchy. The directions were easy to follow. It was my first time making any types of caramel so happy I chose this recipe. Thank you!"
- LESHELLE -
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🧡 Why You'll Love This Recipe
Hiya friend: I've got a secret for you! Homemade caramel corn is so easy to make. Like ridiculously easy. Like only 6 ingredients you probably have in your pantry already easy. Like you'll be nomming in 20 minutes easy. EASY.
Here's why you'll love this recipe:
- Did I mention it's easy? Don't stress about making caramel. Just like with my homemade caramel apples, all you have to do to make caramel is boil some sugar and butter until it's hot enough. That's it. That's basically the whole process.
- Crispy, crunchy, buttery: Classic caramel corn flavor and crunch without the stress.
- No corn syrup: I never seem to have corn syrup on hand when I need it, so this is a caramel corn recipe without corn syrup.
- My secret ingredient makes it turn out perfectly: I add baking soda to my caramel, which gives it a super fluffy texture making sure each popcorn piece gets coated with a tasty jacket of caramel goodness.
- Makes a boatload: This recipe makes 15 cups of caramel corn, which is enough to snack and share! It's a perfect partner to Halloween sugar cookies, Halloween mini pizzas, or witches brew punch for your next Halloween party.
🍿 The Ingredients You Need
- Plain popcorn: Air-popped popcorn is what I recommend here just because of the amount needed (this is the popcorn machine I have used for more than a decade), but microwave popcorn will do the trick, just as long as it is plain, unflavored popcorn.
- Butter: Butter and sugar are the magic ingredients to a good caramel.
- Brown sugar: I like the mild flavor of light brown sugar, but if you want an even more intense browned caramel flavor, dark brown sugar is your friend.
- Baking soda (my ✨ secret ✨ ingredient): Mixing baking soda into the caramel before pouring it on the popcorn turns it fluffy and light-making it easy to coat every popcorn piece in light and crisp caramel.
Make sure to check the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, along with quantities and my expert tips and tricks.
🔁 Variations & Substitutions
- Turn it into a snack mix: My Halloween snack mix recipe makes a peanut butter caramel that is very similar to the process here! But with all kinds of fun mix-ins.
- Make it dairy-free: I have not done it myself, but I've heard this caramel corn recipe also works with dairy-free butter (like Earth Balance sticks).
- Turn it into cracker jack: Easy peasy, just toss in some peanuts in with the popcorn before you add the caramel.
- Turn it into Chicago mix: This message is for all my fellow Midwesterners. This caramel popcorn makes up one half of my Chicago mix popcorn recipe!
🥣 How to Make Homemade Caramel Corn
Step 1: Make a batch of plain popcorn. Put the popcorn in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
Step 2: Mix together butter, brown sugar, and salt in a larger heavy-bottomed saucepan. A cast iron Dutch oven works great for this!
Step 3: Bring to a boil, then boil hard for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally with a silicone spatula, to cook the brown sugar to the hard-crack stage. If you have a candy thermometer, you're looking for 300°F. If you don't have a thermometer, check my Expert Tips & Tricks below for a test that doesn't require one.
Step 4: Add in the vanilla extract and baking soda. Cook for about 1 minute more, stirring constantly.
Step 5: The caramel will fluff up dramatically and turn a light color. This is good!
Step 6: Drizzle the caramel over your popped popcorn.
Step 7: Stir well to distribute. The caramel will start to harden fast as it cools, so work quickly!
Step 8: Spread the caramel corn out on parchment-covered baking sheets to cool completely.
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🙋🏻♀️ Homemade Caramel Popcorn FAQs
The baking soda works to add lots of tiny little air bubbles to the caramel, giving it a fluffy consistency that cools into a crisp, crunchy popcorn coating. Without the baking soda, your caramel corn will be heavy and soggy with caramel.
This is an easy one to solve-your caramel corn is chewy because you didn't cook your caramel long enough! We're looking to get to the hard crack stage, which is 300°F on a candy thermometer. It takes roughly 4-5 minutes of hard boiling to get there.
👩🏻🍳 My Expert Tips & Tricks
- No candy thermometer? You can do the cold water test: spoon some of the caramel into a glass of cold water. When the caramel is ready, it will form brittle strands in the water that break when you bend them. This is called the hard crack stage.
- Easy clean up: Line your baking sheets with parchment for easy cleanup!
- Keeps forever: Because you are cooking out most of the moisture from the caramel, your popcorn will last in an air-tight container for quite a while-enjoy it within 2-3 months.
💕 More Recipes for Popcorn Lovers
If you tried this Homemade Caramel Corn or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments!
📖 Recipe
Homemade Caramel Corn
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 15 cups plain popped popcorn about ½ cup unpopped kernels worth
Instructions
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, brown sugar, and salt.
- While stirring continuously, bring the butter mixture to a boil. Boil for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. Add in the vanilla extract, stirring well to combine. At this point, the caramel should be the hard crack stage (a candy thermometer should read 300°F, or see notes if you don't have a candy thermometer).
- Add in the baking soda and the boil for 1 more minute. The mixture should get very fluffy and foamy. Remove from heat.
- Place the popped popcorn in a very large bowl, and then drizzle the caramel sauce over top. Use a spoon to fold the popcorn until all kernels are covered.
- Pour the caramel corn out onto the prepared baking sheets, and let cool completely.
Video
Notes
- Line your baking sheets with parchment for easy clean up.
- Don't skip the baking soda! It helps keep the caramel light and fluffy so it distributes nicely on your popcorn.
- The hard crack stage happens at 300°F. If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can do the cold water test: spoon some of the caramel into a glass of cold water. When the caramel is ready, it will form brittle strands in the water and the strands will This homemade caramel corn recipe takes 20 minutes to make, uses ingredients you probably have on hand (NO corn syrup) and tastes amazing! when you bend them.
I used this tonight to make Cracker Jack as team gifts for the first baseball game of the season. It was a big hit! Canadians don’t really know about Cracker Jack - what a shame 🙁
I used a candy thermometer and it took a lot longer than 4 minutes for me, but I think I didn’t have the heat high enough.
Delicious!
So glad to hear it was a hit!
I found this recipe last year and bookmarked it after trying. My sister and I make a quadruple batch of this for our large families on movie nights together. That's why I'm here! Time to get cooking for another family movie night. Thanks for the great recipe!
Yay! We love hearing that, Casey! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Made this tonight and it was delicious and perfectly crunchy. The directions were easy to follow, I didn’t have a candy thermometer but had a digital lazer type thermometer that worked great.
It was my first time making any types of caramel so happy I chose this recipe. Thank you!
Yay! That's so wonderful to hear, Leshelle! Thank you so much for taking the time to come back and tell us about your success! =)