A classic crunchy caramel popcorn evenly coated with butter toffee and baked to crunchy perfection. A carnival or fairgrounds classic perfect for just about any occasion or movie night.
At the beginning of the summer I had the opportunity to help plan and throw the most EPIC family reunion weekend. The weekend was filled with family time, catching up, delicious food (like these Lemon Blueberry Pancakes) AND THIS caramel popcorn. We sold small bags of this caramel popcorn at our concessions booth during a Saturday morning carnival extravaganza.
MUSHROOM POPCORN VS BUTTERFLY POPCORN:
Mushroom and butterfly popcorn both come from corn kernels. The biggest difference between the two are that mushroom popcorn pops into a round ball-like shape that’s very consistent. Butterfly popcorn pops in unpredictable shapes with “wings.”
Butterfly popcorn is generally more common in grocery stores. It’s the standard popcorn used at movie theatres and in microwave popcorn.
Mushroom popcorn kernels are harder to come by at your local grocery store. You may have an easier time finding this type of popcorn online or in specialty kitchen stores. Mushroom popcorn is also more expensive to buy.
For this caramel popcorn recipe, I used butterfly popcorn. Mostly because I can buy the popcorn kernels at my local grocery store AND it’s less expensive.
With that said, if you have mushroom popcorn around, feel free to use it. If not, go for the convenient, less expensive option of butterfly popcorn.
CAN I USE MICROWAVE POPCORN TO MAKE CARAMEL POPCORN?
You can use microwave popcorn for this recipe but I wouldn’t recommended it. Microwave popcorn has added butter/oil, salt and sometimes other ingredients that will change this caramel popcorn recipe and possibly the flavor.
Using butterfly or mushroom popcorn or kernels and popping them yourself in a small amount of oil is the best way to go. This will lessen unwanted flavors into the caramel corn recipe.
Without further ado, here’s the recipe.
HERE’S THE FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE. ENJOY!
Butter Toffee Caramel Popcorn
Ingredients
- 1 cup popcorn kernels popped (about 20 cups popcorn)
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1/2 cup corn syrup
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbs vanilla
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
Method
- Grease 2 cookie sheets with butter, oil or pan spray. Evenly spread popped popcorn on the sheets. Preheat oven to 250’F.
- In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup together. Stir regularly to avoid burning. Bring to a boil.
- Boil for 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and add the vanilla, salt, and baking soda.
- Evenly pour caramel sauce over popped popcorn. Carefully toss to coat.
- Bake at 250’F for about 40 minutes STIRRING EVERY 10-15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool until caramel has hardened. Once hardened, break into pieces.
- Store in an airtight container.
Hi Rachel. Have you ever added any kind of nuts to this recipe? If so, what amount of nuts did you add and did you increase the amount of toffee coating or reduce the amount of popcorn to compensate for the addition?
I haven’t tried this recipe with nuts. Let me know how it goes if you try.