Crispy and crunchy salted caramel popcorn that is so easy and yummy. Coated with the most delicious golden brown salty caramel sauce giving you the perfect popcorn.
Probably one of the easiest recipes I have made, also one of the most fun ways to spend more time in the kitchen with kids, when stuck at home or on quarantine cooking hunt. Crunchy and crispy popcorn tossed and coated in luscious golden brown homemade salted caramel i.e. the perfect "Netflix and chill" snack giving you the easiest caramel popcorn recipe without using corn syrup.
The recipe for homemade salted caramel is adapted from my recipe for salted caramel cheesecake bars, which I can officially say, is the easiest cheesecake recipe - made without water bath and so creamy. Making salted caramel sauce at home is easier than you think, so lets get started.
How to make homemade salted caramel sauce?
- melt some sugar (1/2 cup) on medium heat in a heavy bottom pan (you can use regular crystals or caster sugar, whatever you like) melt until the syrup is amber brown
- add butter. I like to add 1/4 cup or 55 grams of regular salted butter in my homemade salted caramel sauce, but you can unsalted butter and then adjust the saltiness in the end. use a whisk and mix everything keeping a safe distance from the heavy bottom pan.
- add cream. I use regular fresh cream for this recipe. Add 1/4 cup of cream to the meted sugar and butter and mix with the help of a whisk. Be very careful throughout the recipe and do not taste test at any point. There is a very high probability of burning your tongue.
- add salt. Add about 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp of salt to your caramel sauce and mix. Your salted caramel sauce is ready.
Tips to keep in mind to make the perfect salted caramel sauce?
- use regular salted butter instead of unsalted butter. makes things easy and yummy.
- use sea salt crystals if you can.
- use a heavy bottom pan to prepare the salted caramel sauce.
- do not taste test at any point - you WILL burn your tongue
How to make salted caramel popcorn?
- prepare some regular popcorn. My favourite way to prepare pop corn is to use microwave popcorn. For this recipe I used 2 packs of 33 grams of microwave popcorn, popped them up until nice and crunchy.
(Avoid using salted/ flavoured popcorn for this recipe and stick to making plain popcorn)
- pour over your caramel sauce. Carefully pour over the luscious salted caramel sauce over your popcorn.
- mix everything. With the help of a large spoon mix everything until all the popcorn is fully covered with salted caramel sauce.
- bake. This is the SECRET, right here, that makes the salted caramel popcorn so crispy and crunchy - transfer this to a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, mix again and bake again for 15 minutes.
- let cool. Let the salted caramel popcorn cool for about 15 minutes and then break into small clusters & enjoy.
Want to make regular caramel popcorn instead of salted caramel popcorn?
- simply replace the salted butter with unsalted butter and skip addition of salt in the (salted) caramel sauce.
- then pour over your popcorn and bake (all other steps remain the same!) and your caramel popcorn is ready.
More sweet recipes from the blog?
- eggless tiramisu
- classic baked creamy cheesecake
- 5 ingredient no bake chocolate tart
- no bake coffee chocolate cheesecake
- coffee panna cotta
- chocolate truffles
- strawberry cheesecake chocolate truffles
- lemon cupcakes
Salted Caramel Popcorn
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 2 people 1x
- Category: Snack
Description
Crispy and crunchy salted caramel popcorn that is so easy and yummy. Coated with the most delicious golden brown salty caramel sauce giving you the perfect popcorn.
Ingredients
Salted Caramel Sauce
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter (regular salted)
- 1/4 cup cream
- 1/2 tsp salt
Popcorn
- 2 packs popcorn (see note 1)
Instructions
- For the salted caramel sauce: add sugar to a heavy bottom pan and let melt on medium heat until an amber-golden-brown syrup is formed.
- Add butter and mix with the help of a whisk. Add cream and mix again and let the syrup come to a boil for about 4-5 seconds. Turn off the flame and add salt. Transfer carefully to a glass bowl.
- Prepare the popcorn and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
- Preheat the oven to 150 degree celsius.
- Pour the salted caramel sauce over the popcorn (in the large bowl) and mix well until the popcorn is nicely coated with the sauce. Transfer this to a baking tray lined with foil and bake for 15 minutes.
- After fifteen minutes, take the tray out of the oven and flip/ mix the caramel popcorn. Transfer the tray back into the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
- Transfer the tray to the kitchen counter and let cool for 10-15 minutes and break the popcorn into small clusters and enjoy.
Notes
- For this recipe I used 2X 33 grams microwave popcorn packs which I simply cooked in the microwave giving me one large bowl or roughly 8-9 cups of cooked pop corn.
Hey Recipe looks great. My caranel sauce was good. Should i cool the sauce before pouring into the popcorn?? Because my popcorns turned all smaller in size compared to the regular one. Any idea why??
Hey Mehalika, honestly I just poured the sauce 2-3 mins after I prepared it. If you let the sauce cool, it will thicken and then you will have to microwave it to loosen it up a little. Hope this helps!