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
AuthorJuliePreheat the oven to 250F and put the popcorn in a big bowl.
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.
Spread out onto a large rimmed baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, stirring once or twice. Cool and break apart.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 250F and put the popcorn in a big bowl.
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.
Spread out onto a large rimmed baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, stirring once or twice. Cool and break apart.
Yum! I might add almonds or pecans to the mix for a homemade gingerbread poppycock 🙂
This is another delicious recipe! I will try it tomorrow. I hope my relatives will love it too!
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 🙂
Yesss. This is perfect for Christmas week!
Ooh – good idea Erica!
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.
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??
Very odd! My guess is your baking soda is old and inactive?
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!
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!
Yes, for sure! just leave it out!
Thanks Julie!
Thank You. This was as easy to make as you said and everyone loved them.