Description
A festive and crunchy Christmas Popcorn Candy featuring popcorn coated in a warm, spiced caramel with cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves. Tossed with slivered almonds and baked to a crisp finish, this sweet treat is perfect for holiday snacking or gifting.
Ingredients
Scale
Popcorn
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil (not required if air popping with a popcorn maker)
- 1/3 cup popping corn (produces 10 cups popcorn)
- 2/3 cup slivered almonds
Caramel
- 100g (7 tbsp) unsalted butter
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (170g) light corn syrup (substitute glucose or golden syrup, honey, or maple syrup)
- 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
- Prepare Popcorn: Heat vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add a few kernels and wait until they pop, then remove those kernels. Add the remaining popcorn kernels, off the heat briefly to shake and spread evenly, then cover with a lid. Return to heat and once popcorn starts popping vigorously, gently shake the pot once to distribute heat. Remove from heat when popping slows to about one pop every 3 seconds. Transfer to a very large bowl, ensuring you have about 10 cups of popcorn.
- Make Caramel: Preheat oven to 110°C (230°F). In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt; stir until just combined but do not stir once bubbling begins. Simmer the mixture for 4 minutes without stirring.
- Add Flavors to Caramel: Remove the saucepan from heat. Quickly whisk in the Christmas spices, vanilla extract, and baking soda vigorously for about 10 seconds until the caramel foams and increases in volume.
- Coat Popcorn: Immediately pour the hot caramel over the popcorn and toss quickly to coat all pieces evenly. Sprinkle the slivered almonds over the coated popcorn and toss again to distribute them.
- Bake to Crisp: Spread the caramel-coated popcorn evenly across two baking trays. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes to ensure even coating and prevent burning. If using glucose or substitutes like golden syrup, honey, or maple syrup instead of corn syrup, bake for an additional 15 minutes.
- Cool and Store: Remove from oven and let the popcorn candy cool completely so the caramel hardens. Break into pieces gently and store in an airtight container. It remains crisp and fresh for 2 to 3 weeks.
Notes
- Adjust popcorn kernel quantity for caramel coverage: 1/3 cup kernels for full candy coating; 3/4 cup kernels for a lighter, less sweet coating.
- Corn syrup stabilizes the caramel preventing crystallization. Glucose syrup is a suitable substitute but requires longer baking time.
- Alternative syrups like golden syrup, honey, or maple syrup can be used but also require an additional 15 minutes baking time.
- Store in an airtight container to maintain crispness for up to 3 weeks.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 250 kcal
- Sugar: 18 g
- Sodium: 120 mg
- Fat: 14 g
- Saturated Fat: 8 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 30 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 30 mg
