Description
Celebrate the festive season with this delightful Christmas Popcorn Candy recipe featuring crunchy popcorn coated in a spiced caramel glaze and sprinkled with slivered almonds. Perfect as a sweet snack or party treat, this recipe blends warm holiday spices with a rich caramel coating, baked to crisp perfection for a crunchy, flavorful experience.
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)
- 2/3 cup slivered almonds
Caramel
- 100 g / 7 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (170 g) light corn syrup (substitute glucose if unavailable)
- 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)
Instructions
- Pop the popcorn: Heat vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add a few popcorn kernels and wait for them to pop, then remove those kernels. Add the remaining popcorn kernels, lift the pot off the stove to shake and spread the kernels evenly, then cover with a lid. Return to heat and once the popcorn starts popping vigorously, gently shake the pot once to prevent burning. Remove from heat when popping slows to about a count of three between pops. Transfer the popped popcorn to a very large bowl—this should yield 10 cups.
- Prepare the caramel: Preheat the oven to 110°C / 230°F. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Stir in the brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt until just combined. Once the mixture starts to bubble, let it simmer without stirring for 4 minutes. Remove from heat, then quickly whisk in the Christmas spices, vanilla extract, and baking soda vigorously for 10 seconds. The caramel will foam and increase in volume upon stopping whisking.
- Coat the popcorn: Immediately pour the foamy caramel over the popcorn and toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle the slivered almonds on top and toss again until the caramel starts to cool and harden, ensuring even coverage.
- Bake to crisp: Spread the coated popcorn evenly across two baking trays. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes to redistribute the caramel and ensure even coating. Note that caramel will remelt during the initial tosses. If using glucose as a corn syrup substitute, bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
- Serve and store: Once cooled, gently break the popcorn candy into pieces. Store in an airtight container to maintain crispness for 2 to 3 weeks.
Notes
- For full caramel candy-like coverage, use 1/3 cup popcorn kernels; using 3/4 cup kernels results in a lighter, less intense coating.
- Corn syrup stabilizes the caramel preventing crystallization. If unavailable, glucose syrup is a good substitute but requires longer baking.
- Golden syrup, honey, or maple syrup can also be used but will require baking an additional 15 minutes to achieve proper crispness.
- Store popcorn candy in an airtight container to keep crisp for up to 3 weeks.
- Use a very large bowl for tossing to avoid spillage, as caramel-coated popcorn expands.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/8 recipe
- Calories: 300 kcal
- Sugar: 25 g
- Sodium: 150 mg
- Fat: 15 g
- Saturated Fat: 8 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 6 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 40 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 4 g
- Cholesterol: 30 mg
