Description

This festive Christmas Popcorn Candy recipe combines crunchy popcorn with a rich, spiced caramel coating and toasted almonds for a perfect holiday treat. The caramel is infused with warm Christmas spices like cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves, giving it a cozy seasonal flavor. The popcorn is baked to crisp the caramel, resulting in a crunchy, sweet snack that stores well for weeks.

Ingredients

Scale

Popcorn

1/4 cup vegetable oil (not required if air popping with a popcorn maker)
1/3 cup popping corn (yields 10 cups popcorn for lighter caramel coverage)
2/3 cup slivered almonds

Caramel

100g / 7 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (170g) light corn syrup (or substitute glucose)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda

Christmas Spices

3 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tsp ginger powder
1/2 tsp allspice powder (or more cinnamon)
1/4 tsp ground cloves (or more cinnamon)

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Pop the popcorn: Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add a few pieces of popcorn and wait until they pop, then quickly remove them. Add the remaining popcorn kernels, lift the pot off the stove to shake and spread the kernels evenly, then cover with a lid. Once the popping intensifies, gently shake the pot once. Remove from heat when the popping slows down to about one pop every three seconds. Transfer the popped popcorn to a very large bowl. You should have about 10 cups.
Prepare the caramel: Preheat your oven to 110°C (230°F). Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the brown sugar, corn syrup (or glucose), and salt, stirring just to combine. When the mixture begins to bubble, let it simmer for 4 minutes without stirring.
Finish the caramel: Remove the saucepan from heat. Quickly whisk in the Christmas spices, vanilla extract, and baking soda vigorously for 10 seconds. Immediately after stopping, the caramel will foam and increase in volume.
Coat the popcorn: Pour the hot caramel straight over the prepared popcorn and toss thoroughly to coat. Sprinkle the slivered almonds over the coated popcorn and toss again until the caramel begins to cool and harden.
Bake for crispiness: Spread the caramel-coated popcorn evenly across two baking trays. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes to coat the popcorn evenly as the caramel melts and hardens. If glucose was used instead of corn syrup, bake an additional 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Gently break into pieces before transferring to an airtight container for storage.

Notes

For a more intense caramel coating, use 1/3 cup popcorn kernels which yields approximately 10 cups popped corn, making the popcorn very sweet like candy.
Using 3/4 cup popcorn kernels gives a lighter caramel coating if a less sweet snack is preferred.
Corn syrup helps prevent sugar crystallization and stabilizes the caramel. Glucose syrup is a suitable substitute but requires an additional 15 minutes of baking time due to higher water content.
Other substitutes for corn syrup can include golden syrup, honey, or maple syrup; with these, extend baking time by 15 minutes for best results.
Store the popcorn candy in an airtight container to keep it crisp and fresh for 2 to 3 weeks.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1/10 of recipe
Calories: 250 kcal
Sugar: 22 g
Sodium: 120 mg
Fat: 12 g
Saturated Fat: 7 g
Unsaturated Fat: 4 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Carbohydrates: 30 g
Fiber: 2 g
Protein: 3 g
Cholesterol: 25 mg