How to Make Caramel Corn

If you’ve been watching our shows these past couple of days, then you know we’re celebrating “State Fair Foods” all week long! Since we all love the food offered at state fairs so much, we thought you’d love learning how you can make them in your own kitchen (that way you don’t have to wait a whole year to eat some of your favorites!).

Yesterday, Howard showed you how to make tasty Root Beer Dogs, which were so good everyone in the office had their fair share. But today, I was extra-excited about something that we were going to make using this classic beauty:   

We’ve got quite a few popcorn lovers in the Test Kitchen, including my coworker Amy, who can usually be found carrying her favorite popcorn salt in her purse! So, when we found out Howard was going to be making Irresistible Caramel Corn, you know we had to get a front row seat!

If you’ve always wanted to know how to make caramel corn at home, check out these behind-the-scenes, step-by-step photos of how Howard made it in the Test Kitchen:

Step 1: Gather all of your ingredients, including some plain popped popcorn. You can make your popcorn any way you want, or purchase it already popped. (We used our fancy popcorn machine, and the smell was incredible!) 

Step 2: Make your caramel sauce by cooking brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, cream of tartar, and salt, stirring constantly while it cooks.

Step 3: Remove your caramel mixture from the heat and stir in the baking soda. You’ll notice that the baking soda will start to make your caramel mixture foam up a little (and maybe lighten up a bit), that’s ’cause the baking soda is reacting to the other ingredients. Adding baking soda will help give your caramel mixture a softer texture when it finally sets. 

Step 4: Immediately pour the caramel sauce over your popcorn (so it doesn’t harden up!) and stir the popcorn until it’s evenly coated.

Step 5: Place your caramel popcorn mixture onto a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, stir, then continue baking for another 30 minutes. Once it’s cooled, you can go ahead and enjoy it right away, or store it in an airtight container for future snacking! (Caramel corn can be stored for 1-2 weeks.)

I don’t know about you, but now that I know how to make caramel corn I may need to look into purchasing some stocks in popcorn, because I’m going to be making this all the time. In fact, I’m already thinking ahead of time and imagining what an amazing gift this would make during the holidays!

In case caramel corn isn’t your thing, or you love popcorn so much you need new ways to eat it all the time, here are some other tasty, coated-popcorn treats, from bloggers, you could try!:

Clockwise from top left: PB&J Popcorn | Churro Popcorn | Muddy Buddy Popcorn | Cookies and Cream Popcorn | S’mores Popcorn

I hope that you’ll give our caramel corn recipe a try, but before you start poppin’ those kernels, I’d like to know:

What’s your favorite state fair food?

P.S. Be sure to check back soon for another state-fair-favorite how-to! And don’t forget to check out our collection of State Fair Food Favorites!