Delicious Homemade Caramel Corn Recipe made with warming gingerbread spices and sweet buttery caramel sauce. Enjoy this perfectly sweet and crunchy snack time favorite all holiday season and share your very own gingerbread caramel corn with family and friends for an easy, homemade, edible gift.
Gingerbread Caramel Corn
Despite the ninety-degree temperatures (Oh, California), I am ready to bust out my Christmas decorations and start my holiday baking.
Today we’re making homemade gingerbread caramel corn. Sweet, snackable, giftable, and perfectly spiced, who wouldn’t want to throw back a couple of handfuls of this crunchy autumn treat?
Have you ever made homemade caramel corn? So much easier to make than you’re probably thinking, the ingredients are straightforward and the process simple.
If this is your first time making this recipe at home, check out my tips and tricks before getting started.
How to Make Gingerbread Caramel Corn
1. Preheat oven and prepare pan:
Preheat the oven to 250°F. Grease or lightly spray a large roasting pan with non-stick cooking spray and line with parchment paper (see notes).
Transfer the popped corn to your prepared roasting pan and set aside.
2. Make the gingerbread caramel sauce:
I recommend pre-measuring the ingredients for the caramel sauce before getting started as things start to move quickly.
Heat the butter, corn syrup, molasses, brown sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir constantly. Continue stirring until the butter is melted, everything is combined, and the mixture comes to a boil.
Once boiling, stop stirring. Allow the mixture to boil for 5 minutes.
Remove the saucepan from the heat. Quickly add the vanilla extract, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Stir to combine. Immediately add the baking soda and stir again (the mixture will bubble up and become foamy).
3. Combine:
Immediately pour the prepared caramel over the popcorn, mixing as you pour (if possible). Continue to stir until the popcorn is completely coated.
4. Bake:
Transfer the roasting pan to the oven and bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
5: Cool, serve, and store:
Remove from the oven. While it is still warm, transfer the gingerbread caramel corn to two rimmed baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Cool completely.
Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
Helpful Tips and Tricks
- Save time and use pre-popped popcorn or microwave (plain) popcorn. The exact number of bags will vary from one brand to another, so if you’re unsure how much popcorn you have, buy extra.
- Unless, of course, you prefer your caramel corn to be extra caramel-y. If that’s the case, you may want to add 16 cups of popped corn rather than 20 cups.
- Don’t forget non-stick cooking spray and parchment paper – it makes for a much easier clean-up! Baked on caramel sauce is not easy to scrub off.
- Mixing and baking the caramel corn in a roasting pan helps make prep much easier given the tall sides of the roasting pan (less chance of the caramel corn spilling over the sides).
- Once the caramel is made, the recipe moves very quickly, so it’s a good idea to have your extract, spices, and baking soda pre-measured and ready to go.
- Have fun and add other additions like salted pretzels or Chex cereal.
More Delicious Desserts,
Caramelized Apple Oatmeal Cookies
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie Recipe
Carrot Sheet Cake Recipe with Cream Cheese Frosting
Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe (How to Make Sugar Cookies)
If you try making this Gingerbread Caramel Corn Recipe, please leave me a comment and let me know how it turned out! I always love to hear your thoughts.
RECIPE CARD
Gingerbread Caramel Corn Recipe
Ingredients
- 20 cups popped corn - (approximately 1 cup kernels)
- 1 cup butter - 2 sticks
- ¼ cup corn syrup - (light or dark corn syrup OK)
- ¼ cup molasses
- 2 cups light brown sugar - packed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 250°F. Grease or lightly spray a large roasting pan with non-stick cooking spray and line with parchment paper (see notes).
- Transfer the popped corn to your prepared roasting pan and set aside.
- Heat the butter, corn syrup, molasses, brown sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the butter is melted and everything is combined and the mixture comes to a boil. Once boiling, stop stirring. Allow the mixture to boil for 5 minutes.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat. Quickly add the vanilla extract, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Stir to combine. Then add the baking soda and stir again (the mixture will bubble up and become foamy).
- Immediately pour the prepared caramel over the popcorn, mixing as you pour (if possible). Continue to stir until the popcorn is completely coated.
- Transfer the roasting pan to the oven and bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven. While it is still warm, transfer the gingerbread caramel corn to two rimmed baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
Jessica's Notes
- Save time and use pre-popped popcorn or microwave (plain) popcorn. The exact number of bags will vary from one brand to another, so plan accordingly.
- The non-stick cooking spray and parchment paper will make for much easier clean-up! Baked on caramel sauce is not easy to scrub off.
- Mixing and baking the caramel corn in a roasting pan helps make prep much easier given the tall sides of the roasting pan (less chance of the caramel corn spilling over the sides).
- Once the caramel is made, the recipe moves very quickly, so it’s a good idea to have your extract, spices, and baking soda pre-measured and ready to go.
Nutritional Information
(Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and specific brands of ingredients used.)
Hi there. I am about to try this (sounds amazing!) but I see at the top that you mention using 8 instead of 10 cups if you want it extra caramel-y, but the recipe shows 20 cups. Should I assume that recipe is just the original doubled, and you didn’t change the top notes? I don’t see that comment if the formal recipe notes – just at the top. Help! Thx in advance – I’ll post a comment/rating after I make it!
Thanks for pointing that out, I did end up doubling the recipe card. I updated the psot to be 16 cups if you want it to be extra caramel-y 🙂
Yum, this looks amazing and perfect for gifting! I have added it to our round-up, 30+ Ultimate DIY Christmas Teacher Gifts. You can view it here if you wish, https://www.diythought.com/30-ultimate-diy-christmas-teacher-gifts/ Thank-you, and have a great Christmas!
Thanks Kelly 🙂