Delicious Caramel Popcorn
This caramel popcorn is beyond creamy, caramelly, soft and chewy. It definitely deserves its title of, The Best Caramel Popcorn!
I know you are looking at the title of this post and thinking to yourself, “Well, she’s wrong, that’s fersure, because I happen to own the best caramel popcorn recipe out there.”
And you may be right, actually, because for every caramel popcorn lover out there, there are at least 1,784 recipes that claim they are the best. That’s the great thing about this ever-evolving treat: it is ever-evolving.
Now, I happen to be in the caramel-popcorn-should-be-ooey-gooey-soft-and-chewy-and-make-my-hands-a-mess camp. What about you?
While I have a fantastic recipe for a crunchy (think: Cracker Jacks) caramel almond popcorn, this particular ooey gooey version is 100 times simpler and quicker. Plus it tastes so darn fantastic, it converted me right there on the spot.
From my extremely talented Aunt Marilyn, this popcorn is beyond creamy, caramelly, soft and chewy.
Made with a rather unusual ingredient (albeit easy to find), this makes for a great conversation topic when serving it to friends: “Whoever guesses what the secret ingredient is, gets a prize!” I’ll leave the prize up to you…but I’m betting most people won’t guess what it is.
My husband, who considers himself The Caramel Popcorn Connoisseur of the Century, rated this the best version ever. So there you have it.
Make this. And with the leftover secret ingredient (since I’ve found it is cheaper to buy it in bulk), bulk up and win an arm wrestle or two for me, won’t you?
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Two Years Ago: Z’Tejas Style Cornbread
The Best Caramel Popcorn
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 g) butter
- 2 cups (424 g) sugar
- 1 cup powdered vanilla whey protein, found in any health food aisle from Wal-mart to your everyday grocery store
- ½ cup light corn syrup
- ⅓ cup water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 large bowls of popped corn
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, whey protein, corn syrup and water. Cook over medium heat until the mixture barely comes to a slow boil. It should still look very light in color.
- Take the pan off the heat and stir in the vanilla, salt and baking soda.
- Pour the caramel mixture over two large bowls of popped corn (about 1 cup unpopped kernels that have been air popped) and mix to combine.
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Recipe Source: from Aunt Marilyn
65 Comments on “Delicious Caramel Popcorn”
I’ve made this several times and people always love it and want the recipe. I have to triple the batch, so I’ll have some to take and some to enjoy at home!
The protein powder always clumps a little because of the heat, but it’s really not noticeable in the finished product.
Made this and it was fantastic!!! I wasn’t sure how I’d like the protein powder in it, but it was delicious!
I just tried this. I didn’t want to go buy a whole thing of whey protein powder just for the recipe. The plant based protein powder does not work. 🙁 It was really bad. I will get some whey and try again!
Sounds awesome! Can this be shaped into popcorn balls? If so, I’d like to do so for an upcoming church activity.
I’ve never shaped them like that, but I bet you could. The mixture is pretty sticky at first, though.
I’ll give it a shot. I’m sure my family won’t mind being my guinea pigs. 😉 Thanks!
So it doesn’t go in the oven to bake it??
Not for this recipe.