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Homemade Caramel Corn

March 20, 2010 by Joy the Baker 88 Comments

Homemade Caramel Corn

I cooked some sugar.

I cooked some sugar and poured it over salted popcorn.

Holy moly.  Hot sugar.

Homemade Caramel Corn

I need to talk to you about hot sugar.

Homemade Caramel Corn

I need to tell you that hot sugar on you hand… not cool… at all.  Hot sugar on salted popcorn is a dream come true.

Homemade Caramel Corn

If you can’t already tell, I burned myself while making this popcorn… for breakfast.  Don’t judge.  The burn was totally worth it.

I learned the value of a giant bowl of ice water in the making of this popcorn.  I’m just sayin…

Here’s how to cook some sugar and make it even more delicious. Just be careful.. k?

Homemade Caramel Corn

It all starts out innocently enough.  Sugar.  Water.  Heat.

Homemade Caramel Corn

After ten minutes of cooking, the sugar is looking like a lean mean sugar bubblin’ concoction.

Homemade Caramel Corn

Twenty minutes.  Watchyoself.

Homemade Caramel Corn

My sugar took about 25 minutes to reach this lovely shade of amber.  And then it burned the heck out of me.  Sad and true…

Homemade Caramel Corn

and worth it.

Homemade Caramel Corn

makes about 6 cups

adapted from foodnetwork.com

Print this Recipe!

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup water

1 tablespoon butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1  teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup roasted peanuts

1/2 cup roasted almonds

1/2 cup unpopped popcorn

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt, depending on how salty you like your life

bowl of ice water

This recipe requires that you work quickly and carefully.  I don’t want you to hurt yourself.  ok?

First, make the popcorn. Place oil in a medium to large saucepan over medium high heat.  Add one kernel of corn and cover pan.  When the single kernel pops, add the 1/2 cup of unpopped popcorn and cover.  Use a pot holder to lightly shake the pan as the corn pops.  When the popping stops, turn of the heat, remove the pot from the burner and shake the popcorn into a large bowl.  Sprinkle with 1/2 to 1 teaspoons of sea salt… depending on how salty you like your popcorn.  Set popped popcorn aside.

Prepare a bowl of ice water and set aside.  If you get any hot sugar syrup on your body.  Ouch.  Stick it in ice water… fast.

Measure out  the butter, vanilla extract, nuts and salt.  Set aside.  In a medium saucepan add the sugar.  Pour the water into the pan with the sugar, but pour the water towards the  side of the pan… not directly on top of the sugar.  Mark an X with your finger through the sugar and water.

Place saucepan over medium-high heat and let cook.  Swirl the pan every few minutes  Swirl, don’t stir.  The sugar and water will cook down and bubble and slowly begin to caramelize.  The process takes 20-30 minutes of cooking and swirling.  Be patient but keep an eye on it.  At the 20 minute mark, you’ll begin to smell caramelization.  When the sugar reaches a caramel color, remove from the heat.  Add the butter and vanilla extract.  The mixture will bubble up.  Give it a few good swirls.

Working quickly and carefully pour the hot caramel mixture over the popcorn.  If any hot caramel gets on your skin, immediately immerse in the bowl of ice water.  Ouch!  With two spatulas stir until most of the popcorn is covered in hot caramel.  Carefully pour out onto a silpat or foil lined sheet pan.  Break up any large clumps with the spatula, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sea salt and let come to room temperature.

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Filed Under: Gluten-Free, Nuts, Recipes, Snacks

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Reader Interactions

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Questions
  1. Lars Whangdoodle

    April 22, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    Is it so very wrong that I made this using pre-popped Kettle Corn from Trader Joes? Judging by how fast the finished delectation disappeared, no it is not.

    Reply
  2. Paige C

    July 13, 2010 at 9:33 pm

    I’m sure this would have been delightful, but I checked facebook when it had been bubbling for 10 minutes and it burned at 15 minutes. :-( There’s always next time!

    Reply
  3. jayayceeblog

    June 19, 2010 at 8:16 am

    I am definitely going to give this a try. I bought a bag of caramel corn at a bakery last week (it included Chex mix) and we ate it over ice cream. It was so ridiculous!

    Reply
  4. SepSep

    May 3, 2010 at 6:44 am

    I made this last week and so happy to report no burns suffered in the easy process and the results were AMAZINGLY YUMMY. My dentist will not be happy with me though as I have since eaten 3/4 of it all by myself.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  5. Zom G.

    April 18, 2010 at 8:18 pm

    Just made this and am having a terrible time waiting for it to cool! Joy, this is so yummy that I can’t stop eating it{editor’s note: I have clearly failed with the waiting while reading comments, but am happy to report that the mix cools quickly.} At least I didn’t tell my co-workers that I was planning on bringing this in tomorrow…shh…don’t tell. In other news I used a ladle for the distributing & dispensing of the caramel (thnx for the burn warning!) and it worked like a charm.

    Hugs!

    Reply
  6. SummerJD

    April 11, 2010 at 9:07 am

    This is the fisrt recipe of yours i have tried, and well i’m sad to report that it didnt go so well. First i popped the popcorn…but i accidently burnt the popcorn.
    Then i moved onto the caramel..it was all going…sugar bubbling away. then all of a suden my sugar liquid substance dried up! is that supposed to happen? Jut as i started to freak out about my now once agian hard sugar…it started to melt, and turn a wonderful brown. ya, thats were it started to go down hill fast. i got burned. like blazing hot pain splattered all over my hand! i’m still feeling the burn. the sad thing is after i evebtually got the popcorn covered in caramell and all…it turned out i had burnt the sugar. so now the popcorn wasl burnt and covered in butter caramel! So in pian, with relatively non-edible popcorn i had to now clean everything that was covered in hardened sugar! That was a mission and a half!!!!!

    Prhaps next time i will be luckier =D

    Reply
  7. risa

    April 9, 2010 at 4:36 pm

    I just made this and good golly it was amazing. It was a perfect little treat for me and my 4 yr old for our girls night!! Thanks wonderful, you rock!

    Reply
  8. Katie

    April 7, 2010 at 8:38 am

    April 7 is National Caramel Popcorn Day, and seeing as how I’ll take any excuse to try a new kitchen adventure, I made this recipe last night and brought it to work today. Emails from my co-workers so far:
    “Cameral corn is delicious. Light, fresh, crunchy, chock full o’nuts! Not gooey or sticky, doesn’t stick to your teeth. A freshly-made homemade batch makes you realize how stale the store bought can be. Only suggestion – make it again.”
    “Light, buttery, sweet…this is FABULOUS! I will be back for more…”

    I did have to use my bowl of ice water, so thanks for emphasizing the need to be prepared.

    I ended up sprinking quite a bit of kosher salt over my finished popcorn. I like this recipe because it’s not too sweet. Next time I might try a slightly higher caramel to popcorn ratio though.

    Happy Caramel Popcorn Day!

    Reply
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  1. Karamell-Popcorn mit Pecankernen und Walnüssen | Kaffee und Cupcakes says:
    November 9, 2013 at 2:42 pm

    […] Das Rezept habe ich übersetzt und abgewandelt von Joy the Baker. […]

    Reply
  2. chocolate caramel corn « culinary catastrophe says:
    April 18, 2011 at 9:24 pm

    […] Source: Joy the Baker […]

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  3. April Activity Calendar | says:
    April 27, 2010 at 10:05 am

    […] April 28 Homemade Caramel Corn […]

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