Finding the perfect snack food can be difficult. It’s easy to reach for a bag of chips if we want something salty, but sometimes it’s not quite enough. On the other hand, sometimes a little bag of candy is just sweet—but we want something to strike a note in between those two flavors. As the old saying goes, sometimes if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.
Today, we’re going to show you how to make a delicious salted caramel popcorn that should satisfy any craving you have for something that tastes both sweet and savory at the same time. Though you can buy caramel popcorn pre-made, it often doesn’t taste particularly fresh—and it definitely doesn’t have a salty kick to it. Trust us, once you try this delicious take on popcorn, you’ll want to make it again and again. So let’s get started.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 1/2 cup of un-popped popcorn kernels
- 1 tablespoon of oil
- 1 cup of salted butter
- 1 cup of light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup of maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1 cup of whole almonds
Here’s what you do:
1. To get started preheat your oven to 300 degrees and line several baking sheets with pieces of parchment paper. In the meantime, get out a large sauce pan with a lid and add your tablespoon of oil. Throw three kernels in as a test and wait for them to pop so you know the oil is hot enough.
2. When the pan is ready, pour in the rest of your corn kernels, cover the pan and shake it up to cover them all with oil. If your pan isn’t big enough to make all the popcorn at once, you can also do it in two batches. Let the corn keep popping while shaking the pan occasionally to stir things up, waiting to hear gaps between pops before taking it all off the heat.
3. Empty all the popcorn into a big mixing bowl and do your best to separate out the un-popped kernels as well. In the meantime, get out another saucepan and melt in your butter before mixing in sugar, maple syrup and salt. Once the sugar has gotten completely moist, turn the heat up to medium high and bring the mixture to a boil.
4. Once it boils, bring the heat down to medium and let it keep boiling for three to four minutes without stirring it up at all. After that, add baking soda and vanilla to the mix, stirring everything up until the sauce thickens and gets a glossy sheen. When the sauce is ready, gradually pour it over your popcorn while stirring the popcorn so it’s evenly coated.
5. Finally, divide your coated popcorn between the two baking sheets and sprinkle it with the rest of your salt. Throw it in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring up the trays approximately every 10 minutes. At the end, let the popcorn cool a bit and enjoy!
As you can see, this is no ordinary caramel popcorn recipe. While it still has all the sweetness you’re used to, it also includes a savory kick at the end—and a second step in the cooking process to make the popcorn truly candy-coated. Although you can take a shortcut by getting pre-made caramel popcorn, we hope this recipe convinces you not to!
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