Homemade Baked Caramel Corn

4.5 Stars (73 Reviews)

Yield: 6 quarts caramel corn

prep time: 10

cook time: 50

total time: 1

This homemade baked caramel popcorn is SO much better than store-bought. It's crispy, sweet, buttery perfection! And it makes a great holiday gift!

Ingredients

6 quarts popped corn (I like to use these white popcorn kernels. I think the white popped corn is prettier and I like the texture better)
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups packed light brown sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon baking soda

Instructions

Preheat oven to 250°F.
Spread freshly popped corn onto two large rimmed sheet pans. Place in the oven to keep popcorn warm and crisp.
In a heavy 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Stir every now and then, dissolving the sugar. Bring mixture to a boil and cook until it reaches the firm ball stage of 248°F, using a candy thermometer. This should take about 5 minutes or so.
Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Caramel mixture will foam.
Remove popped corn from oven and pour hot caramel mixture over it, in a fine stream. Fold to mix well. Return pans to oven for 45 minutes, stirring and scraping up caramel from bottom of pans every 15 minutes. Remove pans from oven to a cooling rack. Once caramel corn is cool enough to handle, and not yet hardened, break up any large clumps using your fingers. Then let caramel corn cool completely. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Notes

from the recipe box of friend Ann Hauer, who got the recipe from a high school Home Ec cookbook

A great twist on this recipes is to drizzle melted chocolate over the cooled caramel corn while it is still in the pans. I melt 4 ounces of chocolate bark and 6 ounces of dark or semisweet chocolate chips together and drizzle over the caramel corn. This can be altered to your own chocolate preference - I’ve just found this ratio pleases both the milk chocolate and dark chocolate lovers in our family. Let the chocolate set completely (can refrigerate briefly to speed up the process) and then break the caramel corn into chunks.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 1 Calories: 442kcal Carbohydrates: 79g Protein: 8g Fat: 15g Saturated Fat: 8g Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g Cholesterol: 31mg Sodium: 139mg Fiber: 6g Sugar: 41g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated by Spoonacular. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee accuracy. If your health depends on nutrition information, please calculate again with your own favorite calculator.

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