I had some of that microwave popcorn sitting in the cupboard. I knew the probability that I was going to eat this popcorn anytime soon, was pretty small. While I’m not a huge popcorn fan because I do find it a bit on the salty side, I do enjoy caramel popcorn with or without nuts once in a while. Off I went to Pinterest to see how to make caramel popcorn in one pot.
Most of the recipes called for corn syrup which I didn’t really want to use. I continued refining my search to find recipes without corn syrup and I eventually found a few that didn’t use corn syrup. This recipe is an amalgamation of the few I found. One modification is to add peanuts to the popcorn before drizzling the butter-sugary mixture. This gives a Cracker Jack like outcome. I have also seen recipes that have as a last step, putting the baking tray in the oven for a few minutes. The latter is not quite a “how to make caramel popcorn in one pot” but one pot and and a baking tray!
After I finished making this and eating it, I thought, “There could be some interesting modifications to this recipe making some interesting popcorn flavours!” At the bottom, after the recipe, are some modifications that I think would be interesting to try. But first, try and enjoy this recipe!
Caramel Popcorn
Ingredients
- 8-9 c popped popcorn
- 1 c butter
- 1 c brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Instructions
- Pop popcorn. ! used regular, plain microwave popcorn.
- Get rid of any unpopped kernels.
- Line a baking sheet with wax paper.
- In a pan, melt butter over medium heat.
- Add in the brown sugar and mix well. Continue stirring, bringing mixture to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes without stirring.
- Add the vanilla and baking soda. Mix well.
- Drizzle the butter-brown sugar mixture over the popcorn and mix evenly coating the popcorn.
- Put buttery-sugary sticky popcorn on wax paper on baking sheet.
- Let popcorn cool.
Modifications
How to make caramel popcorn with nuts is a nice, safe and yummy modification to a regular microwave popcorn. Other ways to modify this recipe is through the additions. Below are some ideas:
- Nuts such as walnuts, hazel nuts, pecans, almonds
- seeds such as sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds
- chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, Reese pieces, mini M & M’s
- dried fruit such as apricots, raisins, cranberries, dates, blueberries, candied ginger
- marshmallows
- mix in other snacks such as Bits & Bites, corn chips, OMG’s anything from Bulk Barn
- Change up the sauce from caramel to a chocolate, or fruit such as a blueberry or cherry.
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