Caramel popcorn is a great treat, but when you want to take it to the next level, you add chocolate. This takes it from a fun treat to something wonderfully decadent. This dark and white chocolate drizzled caramel popcorn takes some time to make, but your family will love it.
The part that takes the longest is making the caramel popcorn. It’s not really all that difficult, but it is time consuming. If you want an easy cleanup, you may want to get one or two of those disposable aluminum roasting pans. The high edges will help when you need to stir the popcorn. Any roasting pan will do the job if you have one.
Start by making the popcorn. I used my Stir Crazy popcorn popper. It took two rounds to make as much as I wanted. Put the popcorn into your roasting pan as you make it so that you can see when you have enough. This way it’s ready to go when your caramel is hot. Do not line it with aluminum foil… the caramel will stick too much to it and make stirring very difficult. It’s not worth the trouble.
Once the popcorn is made, start on the caramel and preheat your oven to 250 degrees F.
Melt one cup of butter in a saucepan. Add two cups of brown sugar, half a cup of corn syrup, and a teaspoon of salt. Bring this whole thing to a boil. Stir constantly so that it mixes well as it comes to a boil.
Once all of this is boiling, stop stirring and allow to boil for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla extract.
Pour the hot caramel all over the popcorn. Quickly stir the popcorn and caramel together. The caramel will not perfectly coat the popcorn at this time – that’s a part of what happens while you cook this in the oven.
Place the caramel popcorn in the oven and bake for one hour, removing from the oven every 15 minutes to give it a good stir. This will help coat the popcorn more thoroughly.
Allow the popcorn to cool. Break apart the chunks once it has cooled.
Now you get to add the chocolate! Spread the popcorn out in a single layer. You can spread it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper at this point, and cleanup will be easier. I kept some of my popcorn as plain caramel corn, which made it easier to spread out. Besides, caramel popcorn without chocolate is yummy too!
Melt a half cup of white chocolate with a teaspoon of coconut oil in 30 second increments in your microwave, stirring between rounds until smooth. Drizzle the white chocolate back and forth across the popcorn.
Do the same with the dark chocolate. I used a spoon to make it easier to drizzle the chocolate.
The chocolate will harden if leave it out, but if you want to speed things up, pop the baking sheet into the refrigerator for a half hour or so. It’s not a good place to store popcorn, though. Not that your family is likely to give you a chance to store the popcorn once they see it.
- 3/4 cup popcorn kernels
- 1 cup butter
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1/2 cup corn syrup
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup white chocolate
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate
- 2 tsp coconut oil, divided
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Pop the popcorn. This may take more than one round, depending on how you make it. Place popped popcorn in a roasting pan and put aside. You may need two pans to make stirring easier.
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Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
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Make the caramel. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat, then add brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Stir constantly until this mixture comes to a boil.
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Allow mixture to boil for 4 minutes without stirring.
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Remove from heat and add in baking soda and vanilla extract. Stir well, then pour over the popcorn. Stir the popcorn well to start coating. Coating will not be complete at this stage.
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Place popcorn in oven and bake for one hour. Remove from oven every 15 minutes and give the popcorn a good stir. This will help coat the popcorn more evenly.
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Remove from oven and allow popcorn to cool. Break up the large chunks of caramel popcorn when it is cool.
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Spread the caramel popcorn out in a single layer on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.
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Melt the white chocolate with 1 tsp of coconut oil in a bowl. Use the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between rounds. Drizzle melted white chocolate across the caramel popcorn using a spoon.
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Melt the dark chocolate with 1 tsp of coconut oil in a bowl. Use the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between rounds. Drizzle melted dark chocolate across the caramel popcorn using a spoon.
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Allow chocolate to solidify. You can speed this up with about 30 minutes in the refrigerator, but do not store the popcorn in the fridge. Move into a serving bowl or storage container when the chocolate is solid.