Easy Homemade Gingerbread Caramel Corn

Gingerbread caramel corn tastes like the holidays packed into a delicious crunchy caramel morsel. The easy homemade caramel is fragrant with the warm gingerbread spices. Gingerbread caramel popcorn is a delightful treat to bring holiday parties. It will literally be gone before you set the bowl down! This delicious treat also makes a great gift for the holiday season. Fill up beautiful tins and give it to all your co-workers and neighbors for the holidays.

Why we love this caramel corn so much!

Oh my goodness who needs chestnuts roasting, the aroma’s of egg nog and pine tree’s?  All you really need is the fragrance of gingerbread caramel corn cooling on your counter top.  I think it’s the combo of the warm spices, butter and molasses all wrapped into one.  This should actually be a candle scent. It’s unbelievable!  Gingerbread Caramel Corn was one of very first recipes I developed for Eat2gather. I’m claiming it as the OG gingerbread caramel corn recipe, these things are hard to prove, but I just know when I had the idea after tasting it at a popcorn shop in Chicago (you know the one!), I looked for it on the world wide web and It was nary to be found so I came up with this. This is an updated version of the first recipe. I originally used chystalized ginger but that can be hard to find, so I switched to all the spiced you have on hand already. The holidays are busy enough you don’t need to be looking all over for one random ingredient.

WARNING: This gingerbread caramel corn recipe is highly addictive.  Once you start consuming you may be unable to stop. You should just double the recipe, because it will disappear before it’s even cooled.

Gather these ingredients

How to make gingerbread caramel corn

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Pop 12 cups popcorn in an air popper put popped corn in an even layer in a large roasting pan or a large baking sheet or two will work if you don’t have a roasting pan.

Your friends and family will thank you if you take the time to pick out the unpopped kernels. OOph the last thing you want is your crown falling out at a the office Christmas party. Talk about a buzz kill!

If this is your first time making caramel sauce, have no fear this recipe is foolproof! Add 3/4 cup butter, 1 cup dark brown sugar, 2 tablespoons dark karo syrup, 2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses, and tsp salt to a medium saucepan (I used 3 quart pan). The best way to insure that you do not burn your caramel sauce it so not leave it unattended, and start with your heat on low and gradually move it up if needed.

Use a heatproof spatula or a whisk to stir butters and sugars together until they combine and start to bubble like this. Remember go slow. Once it starts to bubble continue to stir for another 2 minutes.

Add gingerbread spice mixture (2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp clove, allspice, nutmeg, and cardamom) to the caramel sauce and whisk briskly, making sure that the spices get evenly distributed.

Continue to whisk over heat for 30 more seconds. Remove from heat. The sauce should be dark amber in color and smell like Santa Claus’s cologne.

Add the baking soda, and once again vigorously whisk this ingredient into the caramel sauce. The baking soda will cause a tiny chemical reaction, which is kind of fun, if you have little ones around you can have them watch the caramel sauce foam up as you whisk it.

It’s time to pour the gingerbread caramel coating over the popcorn you have lying in wait in your roasting pan!

Drizzle caramel coating over popcorn. Do not worry about getting it even, just make sure that you use all of the caramel sauce.

Stir it around as best you can and place in your preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Remove after 10 minutes and stir popcorn around, try to get an caramel that has sunk to the bottom up onto the popcorn. Pop it back in the oven for another 10 minutes. At this point you want to place a large sheet of parchment paper on your countertop.

Remove gingerbread caramel corn from your oven, give it one more stir to distribute any caramel that still is being stubborn about sinking to the bottom. Now tip the finished caramel corn out on to the parchment paper.

Spread out in an even layer, so there are not any large clumps. Let cool completely and store in an airtight container until ready to serve or giveaway.

Be prepared!   You will want to double this recipe and then make it multiple times.  It’s perfect for gifts.  Fill up paper lunch bags, write a little message on it and give them to anyone and everyone! Commit random acts of kindness by handing these out to people in the grocery store parking lot. Yeah they might think your crazy, but then they will eat this caramel corn and they will come after you for the recipe and you know where to send them!! See I just turned random acts of kindness into a marketing scheme. tee hee

Tips & FAQs

• Q What adjustments, if any, do I need to make if I want to double or triple this recipe? A If you are using a large roasting pan add an additional 10 minutes of baking time, total time being 30 minutes. If you do not have a roasting pan use 3-4 baking sheets because it will be hard to stir the caramel corn if the pan is too crowded. If caramel corn is spread out evenly over baking sheets you can keep the total baking time to 20 minutes.
• Q Do I need a candy thermometer for making this caramel sauce? A No that’s not necessary. If you follow the directions above or in the recipe card, this recipe is hard to mess up!
• Q Is there a way I can use this recipe to make plain caramel corn for any time of year? A This recipe is very easy to convert. Leave out all the spices, and swap the dark Karo syrup and molasses for 1/4 cup corn syrup or light karo syrup. Thats all there is to it, the rest of the recipe is the same.
• Variation: If you like Cracker Jack, add 1 cup of salted roasted peanuts after you take it out of the oven the first time. It’s not exactly the same but it’s pretty darn close!
• Tip: Make sure your baking soda is not expired before you use it, this could cause your caramel corn coating to fail.
• Tip: For ease of clean up as soon as you have scraped the caramel out of the saucepan put it in the sink and fill it with water!
• Tip: One great thing about this recipe is that it is relatively inexpensive, and so easy to make. This makes it a great gift for teachers, co-workers, neighbors during the christmas season, and it won’t break the bank! Make sure gingerbread caramel corn has cooled completely before placing in food safe bags, tie with a ribbon. Or if you have some holiday themed christmas tins (which you can also get at the dollar store) these also make a great storage option when giving as a gift.
• Tip: BEWARE if you even take just one nibble of this smacktacular treat you may not be able to stop, and your family will find you sprawled out under the Christmas tree stoned from this highly addictive treat. You need to take heed to my warnings pack it up, give it away! And when all the giving has been gave, then make yourself a batch.  Just for you!

 

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