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Hi Bold Bakers!
Homemade Microwave Caramel Corn, who knew that was possible? Not me until recently. You will have to see it to believe it but trust me. Out of a brown paper bag comes crunchy Caramel Corn that is covered in a crisp shell of caramel that you would only imagine would have to be baked to get those results. I have created a lot of crazy recipes in a microwave (like my Mug Pizza & Chocolate Molten Lava Cake in a Mug) but I think this Microwave Caramel Corn has to be one of the craziest! And by crazy, I mean awesome!
When making fresh Popcorn at home you usually have to buy those store-bought microwave packets. They are a fast convenient solution, right? But did you know you can make it yourself in just 2 MINUTES in the microwave with only a brown paper bag and some popcorn kernels? It sounds crazy but when you try it you won’t believe the results.
Popcorn can be a delicious blank canvas for you to add your favorite flavors and seasonings to.
Homemade Microwave Popcorn is the best kind of fast food. It is low-fat, gluten free, inexpensive and a great snack food.
The best thing about making your own is that you get to control the ingredients that go into it, like real butter instead of a “butter-like substance” and so on.
Make a simple caramel in the microwave and pour it all over your popcorn in the bag.
Out of the microwave in a few minutes you will have this gorgeous Homemade Caramel Corn.
100% made in the microwave, no fuss and it is crispy and crunchy just like baked Caramel Corn, go figure!
Find my other Homemade Microwave Popcorn flavors here.
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Microwave Caramel Popcorn Recipe
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup (60g/2oz) popcorn kernels
- 5 tablespoons (2 ½ oz/ 75g) butter
- ½ cup (3oz/90g) dark brown sugar
- 2 ½ tablespoons (1 ½ oz/45g ) maple syrup (or golden syrup but not honey)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Put the popcorn kernels in a medium brown paper bag. Roll the top of it closed nice and tight. This will keep in the steam while cooking
- Place the bag upright in the microwave and cook for roughly 1 minute 35-50 seconds or until the kernels stop popping at the rate of at least 1 per second. Keep an eye on it (my microwave is 1200 watts so your cooking time may vary depending on your microwave)
- To make the caramel: In a medium microwave-proof bowl add the butter, brown sugar and maple syrup.
- Microwave until it begins to bubble up (approximately 1 minute 30/ 2 minutes)
- Remove from the microwave and stir in the baking soda, vanilla extract and salt and stir until the mixture is foamy and the soda is well-dissolved.
- Pour the syrup over the popped corn in the bag. With a spatula get down to the very bottom of the bag and make sure the caramel is really well distributed throughout the corn.
- Microwave for 1 minutes. Remove the bag and with a towel holding the bag run your spatula all around and to the bottom of the bag mixing up the caramel corn really well. Mixing it really well will prevent your popcorn from burning.
- Repeat the microwave process for another 30 seconds or so and stir well again. Continue for short intervals until you have reached a lovely golden brown caramel color.
- Pour out into a large tray or surface and cool, stirring occasionally to break into individual kernels
- store in an airtight container for 4 days.
Recipe Notes
* stay close by the microwave while cooking so you can hear it pop, the popcorn can burn if cooked too long
*Place bag standing upright, not on its side
*store popcorn in an airtight container for 2 days.
Hi Gemma, recipe #2 of yours, for me tonight, I used your granola recipe earlier.???? This caramel corn was so easy to make! I’ve never made it before and I liked using the microwave instead of the stovetop method. I think it just made everything so much easier to control , particularly the caramel part. I altered your recipe a bit first of all I used a large glass casserole to pop the popcorn. I find it’s much easier than using a bag in general but especially for this recipe (and I was able to store the popcorn in it… Read more »
Instead of maple syrup we used 2 Tbsp corn syrup and 1 1/2 tsp molasses. We followed the paper bag technique and it is fabulous and very quick compared to using an oven. Thanks so much! I just found Gemma on YouTube and look forward to trying more of her recipes!
Hi Gemma!
This taste SO AWESOME! I am so addicted to it and can’t stop eating 🙂
Thank you Gemma for the easy and convenient recipe 🙂
I replace the maple syrup with my left over hotcakes syrup from McD and it taste as awesome!
I like adding a mixture of melted peanutbutter, butter and then add in local honey. Pour all over the popcorn. Toss to mix. It’s sooo good!
I cannot believe how easy it’s to make caramel popcorn. I used to make it on the stove and in the oven. Now with just my husband and me at home, I can make this so quickly for a snack. Made it several times now and has always turned out yummy. I have been a fan of yours for many years and have turned many friends to your recipes. What I love the most is the fresh ingredient. I found you when trying to make pumpkin pie. Every recipe asked for can pumpkins and I had fresh pumpkin puree made… Read more »
Great recipe we used it for the 5th time and we loved it
It has a good flavor. I will make it again, BUT I felt it was too salty. I will reduce the salt amount to about 1/2 teaspoon. NOT the 1 1/2 teaspoon the recipe called for.
if youre still active on this platform, is there a reason why we cant substitute maple syrup or golden syrup with honey? i dont have those so can we just skip it out or is there a function for maple syrup?
Is there a maple syrup substitute? Or Can maple syrup be made at home?
Just made this for hubby and I. Oh so yummy! Instead of trying to mix syrup into full bag of popped corn, I poured some of the popcorn in a bowl, mixed some syrup into what was left in bag and than poured the rest of popcorn back into the bag with the rest of the syrup. Made it easier to mix.
P.S. Bought your cookbook and love, love, love it. I love to sit and look at the pictures, not to mention all the great recipes!