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Home » Snacks » Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn

Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn

By Chula King · January 1, 2017 · Updated December 1, 2020 11 Comments

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Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn is sweet, crunchy, and totally addictive. When stored in an airtight container, caramel corn will keep for several weeks.

What better way to ring in the new year than with this delicious Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn. It’s sweet, crunchy, and totally addictive. When stored in an airtight container, the caramel corn will keep for several weeks, if it lasts that long!

Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn

Ingredients

I used the following ingredients for the Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn: Freshly popped popcorn, unsalted dry roasted peanuts, brown sugar, unsalted butter, corn syrup, salt, baking soda, and vanilla extract.

Ingredients

Making the Old Fashioned Caramel Corn

I started by popping some popcorn on the stove in a little bit of oil. A word of caution here – don’t be tempted to use microwave popcorn. It has a lot of additives in it that will impact the final taste of the caramel corn. However, you can use Unflavored Skinny Pop. A 4.4 ounce package has about 10 cups of popcorn – enough for the caramel corn with some leftover for snacking! Because Skinny Pop is lightly salted, omit the salt from the caramel.

Cooking popcorn

I dumped the popped corn onto a wire rack on top of a rimmed baking sheet. The reason that I did this was to ensure that no unpopped kernels made their way into the caramel corn.

removing unpeopled kernels

I put the popped corn and peanuts into a large mixing bowl, and turned my attention to the caramel. For this, I stirred the brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, and salt in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Once the butter had melted and the mixture had come to a boil, I lowered the heat to medium low.

Cooking caramel

I let the caramel mixture continue to boil without stirring for five minutes. After five minutes, I removed the pan from the heat, and added the baking soda and vanilla extract.

Adding vanilla

I stirred the caramel to ensure that the baking soda and vanilla were well incorporated. Then, I poured the caramel over the peanuts and popcorn.

Pouring caramel

I quickly stirred the mixture with a wooden spoon to coat the peanuts and popcorn. Then, I dumped it onto a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet.

Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn

After spreading the mixture out on the baking sheet, I popped it into a preheated 250° F oven for an hour. Every 15 minutes during the hour, I removed the baking sheet, and stirred the caramel corn to ensure that the peanuts and popcorn were well coated.

Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn

After giving the caramel corn one last stir, I dumped it onto a piece of parchment paper so that it could completely cool. I broke up any large clumps, tasting a few along the way.

Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn

I ended up with about 9 cups of Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn. It’s sweet, but not too sweet. Every bite is crunchy and totally addictive. Yum!

Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn PudgeFactor.com: Sweet, crunchy, and totally addictive.

If you don’t want to cook the popcorn on the stove, check out my Skinny Microwave Popcorn in a Paper Bag. Or if you’re looking for some more yummy popcorn treats, check out my Dark Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Corn or Halloween Kettle Corn.

I hope you liked this recipe for Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn as much as I do. If so, please consider rating it and leaving a comment. Also, if you’d like to receive notifications of new posts by email, ever your email address in the Subscribe box.

Thank you so much for visiting Pudge Factor. I hope you’ll come back!

Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn is sweet, crunchy, and totally addictive. When stored in an airtight container, caramel corn will keep for several weeks.

Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn

What better way to ring in the new year than with this delicious Old-Fashioned Caramel Corn. It's sweet, crunchy, and totally addictive. When stored in an airtight container, the caramel corn will keep for several weeks, if it lasts that long!
5 from 3 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings: 12
Calories: 198kcal
Author: Chula King

Ingredients

  • 8 cups fresh popped popcorn about 1/2 cup unpopped corn*
  • 1 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts
  • 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup corn syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 250° F.
  • Place popped corn into a large bowl; add peanuts to the top.
  • Heat the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring until butter is melted. Reduce heat to medium low; cook, undisturbed and uncovered, for 5 minutes.
  • Remove saucepan from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla extract.
  • Pour the caramel over the peanuts and popcorn; stir to coat.
  • Spread the mixture onto an ungreased, aluminum foil lined baking sheet. Bake for one hour, removing every 15 minutes to stir.
  • Spread the mixture onto parchment paper to cool. It may seem sticky at first, but will dry as it cools.
  • Store in airtight container.
  • Yield: 9 cups.

Chula's Expert Tips

Note: You can use Unflavored Skinny Pop rather than popping your own. Because the Skinny Pop is lightly salted, omit the salt from the caramel mixture.

Nutrition

Calories: 198kcal | Carbohydrates: 22g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 12mg | Sodium: 235mg | Potassium: 118mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 160IU | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 0.6mg
Tried this recipe?Please leave a comment below and/or give this recipe a rating. On Instagram? Take a picture and tag @pudgefactor or #pudgefactor.

Related

Filed Under: Christmas, Desserts, Edible Gifts, Snacks

Previous Post: « Grand Marnier Orange Sherbet
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sasha @ Eat Love Eat says

    January 7, 2017 at 11:26 am

    This looks incredibly delicious. I love your tip for getting rid of the unpopped kernels – genius!

  2. c2king says

    January 7, 2017 at 11:50 am

    Thanks! It is delicious and so easy to make. I generally store it in a Ziploc bag.

  3. Mikaela Stone says

    January 9, 2017 at 1:24 am

    Caramel corn is my hubby’s favorite! He will be so excited to see this recipe!

  4. c2king says

    January 9, 2017 at 7:22 am

    Hope he enjoys it as much as I do!

  5. Patti Winters says

    January 16, 2017 at 8:24 am

    Your caramel corn looks amazing! Can’t wait to give it a try!

  6. c2king says

    January 16, 2017 at 8:35 am

    It is amazing! I made some more yesterday – it’s so easy to make.

  7. Margaret says

    February 17, 2017 at 11:54 am

    So easy to make! Tastes so good! I just made 4 batches so I can do favors for my daughters 30th birthday party.

  8. c2king says

    February 17, 2017 at 2:08 pm

    I’m so glad that it turned out well for you!

  9. Karen @ Sugartown Sweets says

    October 20, 2017 at 10:10 pm

    I’ve experimented with caramel corn and your recipe looks delicious! This one is next on my list. What a great idea you have for getting rid of the unpopped kernels! 🙂

  10. c2king says

    October 21, 2017 at 6:46 am

    Thanks! It tastes incredible, and makes great gifts. I hope it turns out as well for you as it does for me!

  11. Jeff says

    December 22, 2020 at 1:33 pm

    5 stars
    The best corn I ever made , just like when I was a child!!

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I'm Chula King, the food blogger, award-winning photographer, and videographer behind Pudge Factor. Pudge Factor features amazing and well-tested recipes from my every day cooking. These recipes run the gamut from simple to sophisticated and everything in between. I not only present awesome recipes with tips and tricks that I've learned through the years, but also process photos from start to finish. For some of the recipes, I include videos detailing the actual making of the dish. Read More…

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