Dark And White Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Popcorn

Dark And White Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Popcorn

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.

caramel ingredients

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.

caramel popcorn

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.

white chocolate caramel popcorn

Do the same with the dark chocolate. I used a spoon to make it easier to drizzle the chocolate.

dark chocolate caramel popcorn

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.

Dark And White Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Popcorn

4.85 from 137 votes
Dark And White Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Popcorn
Dark And White Chocolate Drizzled Caramel Popcorn
Ingredients
  • 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
Instructions
  1. 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.

  2. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

  3. 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.

  4. Allow mixture to boil for 4 minutes without stirring.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. Remove from oven and allow popcorn to cool. Break up the large chunks of caramel popcorn when it is cool.

  8. Spread the caramel popcorn out in a single layer on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

Chocolate Covered Popcorn With Nerds

Chocolate Covered Popcorn With Nerds

Popcorn can be a nice, healthy treat. Well, healthy until you coat it with chocolate and add in a bunch of Nerds candy. Then, maybe not so healthy. But healthy isn’t the point of making chocolate covered popcorn with Nerds. Fun is.

This was made as a fun surprise for my kids. They had no idea that I had made it until I pulled it out of the cabinet. That’s one of the fun parts of having kids in school – they’re easy to surprise because they aren’t always home with you. They already know I like Nerds with chocolate ever since I made the Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Monsters, which also had Nerds as a topping.

I used dark chocolate for this recipe because it’s my favorite. If you want to go for looks, try it with white chocolate. The Nerds should show up better that way too.

I made a bunch of popcorn with my Stir Crazy popcorn popper. That leaves a little oil on the popcorn, but really not enough to notice. I wouldn’t recommend using store bought microwave popcorn for this recipe as I’m not at all sure what the butter flavoring would do to the taste.

If you really want to microwave your popcorn, you can prepare plain popcorn for the microwave. Pour about a quarter cup of popcorn kernels into a lunch size paper bag. Fold the end over a time or two and place in the microwave. Cook about as long as you would store bought microwave popcorn – maybe two minutes. You’ll know it’s done when the popping slows down enough.

Don’t burn popcorn in the microwave. My daughter has a friend who prefers it that way and did it once at my house. We had to open all the windows on a cool day because it smelled so awful. She was happy, though. I tried some, and it tasted as bad as it smelled.

When you have enough popcorn made, it’s time to prepare the chocolate. Place the popcorn in a large bowl, bigger than it looks like the popcorn needs. You’ll be doing a lot of stirring.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between rounds, until it’s completely melted. Pour over the popcorn and stir a few times.

Chocolate on popcorn

Add in the Nerds candy after those first few stirs. Now you really want to stir things up, so that the popcorn is thoroughly coated.

chocolate popcorn with Nerds

If you’re using dark chocolate, you won’t be able to see the Nerds in there very well. That’s okay – you’ll still taste them, and that’s all you need.

Spread the chocolate popcorn out on a baking sheet that has been covered in parchment paper. The better you spread it out, the easier it will be to break into chunks later. Refrigerate until the chocolate has solidified, perhaps 15-30 minutes.

chocolate popcorn cooling

Break up the clumps and put into a container. I used an old gallon pickle jar I had around the house. They’re pretty useful sometimes, so I keep a few.

The chocolate covered popcorn with Nerds was a big hit with the kids. We adults liked it too.

Chocolate popcorn with Nerds

3.2 from 2083 votes
Chocolate popcorn with Nerds
Chocolate Covered Popcorn With Nerds
Ingredients
  • 5 cups popped popcorn
  • 8 oz dark chocolate chips or chopped into small pieces
  • 2 oz Nerds candy
Instructions
  1. Place popcorn in large bowl with plenty of room for mixing. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.

  2. Place chocolate in small bowl and melt in 30 second increments until completely melted. Stir between rounds.

  3. Pour melted chocolate over popcorn and give a quick stir to lightly coat popcorn.

  4. Add in Nerds and keep stirring popcorn until thoroughly coated.

  5. Spread chocolate popcorn on covered baking sheet as well as possible. Refrigerate 15-30 minutes, or until chocolate has solidified.

  6. Break up large chunks of popcorn and place in storage container or serving bowl. Enjoy.

Recipe Notes

You can be very approximate with measurements in this recipe. It's very flexible.

Disclosure: Gimme Chocolate is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. I also review or mention products for which I may receive compensation from other sources. All opinions are my own.

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