Vanilla Honey Salted Caramel Popcorn

Hi. My name is Shanna. And I am a salted caramel addict. If it can be made into salted caramel - I will make it. Such as this popcorn. Caramel popcorn good, salted caramel popcorn amazing!!!!

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I have friends that tell me they wish they knew how to bake, cook etc like I do. I joke with them that I wish I didn't know how, because then I wouldn't be able to make things like this salted caramel popcorn and eat all most of it myself.

Vanilla Honey Salted Caramel Popcorn - your new favorite sweet snack.

I have made this recipe many many times. I actually was looking through a huge box of recipes that I have yet to file away and probably won't until we move, but it was fun sitting there going through them. I had forgotten about so many. I used to always print out and save in a pile, instead of saving to a recipe file on my computer.

Caramel Popcorn is life:

This recipe originally came from All-Recipes, but its pretty much the same as many others online. I only adapted it slightly by increasing the vanilla, adding big fat sea salt flakes and swapping out the corn syrup for honey. I am not big  fan of corn syrup and in a lot of my recipes that call for it I have had great success swapping it for honey.

Like these vanilla bean marshmallows.   I don't mind the occasional recipe needed corn syrup, I try to buy organic when I can. I often use maple syrup or local raw honey in recipes that call for corn syrup. And the honey totally works in this caramel popcorn recipe.

Ingredients needed:

• Butter - unsalted is fine.
• Brown sugar - I use light brown sugar. You can use light, dark or a combo of the two.
• Honey - any kind works.
• Vanilla extract - I use a while tablespoon for extra vanilla flavor.
• Popcorn - I make 6 quarts - this will depend on how you make the popcorn. I make it in my air fryer in two batches.
• Large salt flakes- Maldon salt is best.

How do you make caramel popcorn?

Caramel popcorn starts with unsalted, unbuttered popped popcorn. Don't use microwave popcorn with all the additives etc. Plain is best and you can make this in an oil popper, an air popper or stovetop. 

First step is popping your popcorn. You can do this either in the microwave (please use plain popcorn) stovetop or with a popcorn maker. I use an air popper since that is what I have.

The next step is making the caramel sauce. This gets heated in a pan on the stove. The secret ingredient for making amazing caramel popcorn is the addition of baking soda in the caramel sauce.

The third step is mixing the popped popcorn with the sauce and baking in the oven to get that nice, caramel crunch to the popcorn. This gets stirred every 15 minutes for 45 minutes to an hour until all the popcorn is well coated.

Salted Caramel Popcorn Recipe

Vanilla Honey Salted Caramel Popcorn

Shanna

My twist on caramel popcorn by using honey, extra vanilla and large sea salt flakes. So good, it doesn't last more than a day - hard to stop eating once you start! Adapted from All Recipes

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Servings 24 cups of popcorn

Ingredients

  

• 2 sticks butter, 1 cup unsalted (226 grams)
• 2 cups brown sugar, I used dark (426 grams)
• ½ c cup honey
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 6 quarts freshly popped popcorn, unsalted and no butter, preferably air popped
• 1 ½ teaspoon large sea salt flakes, such as maldon

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 250 deg. F. Set out two large cookie sheets with an edge (jelly roll pans) and line with silicone bake mats or parchment paper. Place half the popped popcorn in a large bowl. Half in another bowl.
• Heat butter, honey and brown sugar over medium heat stirring until melted, raise heat and let boil for 4 minutes. Removed from heat and immediately add the vanilla, baking soda and salt. The mixture will bubble up rapidly so stir quickly.
• Pour half the mixture over half the popcorn in the bowl, stirring well to coat, add the other half of the popcorn in the bowl and pour the remaining caramel sauce over the popcorn stirring again.
• Spread the popcorn mixture evenly in the two pans. Don’t worry if all the popcorn didn’t get covered. The sauce will melt again while baking and stirring will help get it all coated.
• Place pans in oven and bake for one hour. Every 15 minutes exactly stir well to help get all the popcorn coated
• Removed after an hour and stir again, as it cools the popcorn will stick together so continue to stir and break up the larger pieces in to smaller ones. Store the caramel corn in an airtight container or resealable baggie. This will keep at room temperature up to 2 week – unless you eat it all first!

This pretty much sums up how good this caramel popcorn is!

P.S. This caramel popcorn is also insanely good on top of vanilla ice cream. Just FYI