Gingerbread Caramel Corn

gingerbread caramel corn

Gingerbread caramel corn! It had to be done. It’s crunchy. It’s munchy. It’s gifty and eat-on-the-couchy. Perfect for Christmas week, don’t you think?

Every time I make caramel corn, I forget 1) how easy it is, and 2) how delicious it is. Just make sure you use a saucepan or pot with enough room for the sugar mixture to foam up (it will about triple in size) when you add the vanilla and baking soda – this is what makes it light and crisp, and not so tooth-breakingly heavy. This stuff will not compromise your dental work. Nor does it require a candy thermometer, which is a good thing if you haven’t found one in your stocking yet.

This is the perfect sort of thing to have on the coffee table whilst reading/movie-watching/playing Scrabble, or to bring along a bag of if you’re heading to a skating party. It’s wintertime snack food.

Gingerbread Caramel Corn

AuthorJulie

Yields1 Serving

8-10 cups popped popcorn
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup or Rogers Golden syrup
1/4 cup butter
1 Tbsp. molasses
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. dry ginger

1

Preheat the oven to 250F and put the popcorn in a big bowl.

2

In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, molasses and salt and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and boil without stirring, swirling the pan occasionally, for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the baking soda and vanilla - it will foam up at first. Stir in the cinnamon and ginger and quickly pour over the popcorn; stir with a heatproof spatula or tongs to coat well.

3

Spread out onto a large rimmed baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, stirring once or twice. Cool and break apart.

Category

Ingredients

 8-10 cups popped popcorn
 1 cup packed brown sugar
 1/2 cup corn syrup or Rogers Golden syrup
 1/4 cup butter
 1 Tbsp. molasses
 1/4 tsp. salt
 1 tsp. baking soda
 1 tsp. vanilla
 1 tsp. cinnamon
 1/2 tsp. dry ginger

Directions

1

Preheat the oven to 250F and put the popcorn in a big bowl.

2

In a medium saucepan, combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, molasses and salt and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and boil without stirring, swirling the pan occasionally, for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the baking soda and vanilla - it will foam up at first. Stir in the cinnamon and ginger and quickly pour over the popcorn; stir with a heatproof spatula or tongs to coat well.

3

Spread out onto a large rimmed baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, stirring once or twice. Cool and break apart.

Gingerbread Caramel Corn
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13 comments on “Gingerbread Caramel Corn

  1. Erica B.
    December 29, 2013 at 12:44 pm

    Yum! I might add almonds or pecans to the mix for a homemade gingerbread poppycock 🙂

  2. Marie Taylor
    December 29, 2013 at 4:29 pm

    This is another delicious recipe! I will try it tomorrow. I hope my relatives will love it too!

  3. Trevor
    December 29, 2013 at 7:52 pm

    Really cool idea…I could totally see myself getting addicted to the gingerbread caramel corn…then again, reg. old caramel corn is pretty addictive as is. Thanks for sharing the recipe 🙂

  4. rose
    December 30, 2013 at 3:41 am

    Yesss. This is perfect for Christmas week!

  5. Julie
    December 30, 2013 at 9:25 pm

    Ooh – good idea Erica!

  6. Korena
    December 31, 2013 at 4:53 pm

    Just made a batch of this to take to a friend’s house for New Years and I can’t stop snacking on it! So good and easy on the teeth as promised 🙂 I used more like 12 cups of popcorn (about 1/2 cup unpopped I think) and it was just the right amount of caramel.

  7. Meg
    February 21, 2017 at 3:55 pm

    Mine didn’t foam up when I added the baking soda and vanilla 🙁 I’m not sure what I did wrong but it left the mixture very thick and difficult to mix into the popcorn. Any idea what might have gone wrong??

    • Julie
      February 22, 2017 at 5:15 pm

      Very odd! My guess is your baking soda is old and inactive?

  8. Mandy M
    December 18, 2018 at 11:24 pm

    Super tasty! I’m so excited to gift this in cute jars this Xmas!
    I followed the recipe, but mixed in some sliced almonds and chopped hazelnuts after mixing the candy mixture with the popcorn. At the end of baking, I dropped some chocolate chips so when I went to give it a final stir they melted just enough to make a pretty swirl of chocolate!
    Just be sure to listen to the ‘stir quickly’ part of the recipe! My pots were pretty heavy so I would recommend using a light one to get the candy mixture onto the popcorn as fast as possible. I couldn’t move as quickly as I would’ve liked, and sacrificed a little hardened caramel on my pots. Not a biggie, but next time I will use my light pots since enamel can be heavy to hold and scrape!
    Yum!! Such a great idea! Thanks Julie!

  9. Laurie
    December 9, 2019 at 7:00 pm

    Hey Julie, will it still work without molasses? Can I adjust the corn syrup amount to compensate? (Plus: greta idea to add nuts and few chocolate chips! Definitely trying that!) Thx!

    • Julie
      December 12, 2019 at 9:29 am

      Yes, for sure! just leave it out!

      • Laurie
        December 12, 2019 at 2:08 pm

        Thanks Julie!

  10. Anonymous
    December 23, 2019 at 2:45 pm

    Thank You. This was as easy to make as you said and everyone loved them.

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