This homemade toffee popcorn recipe is a buttery caramel toasted popcorn and tastes like a richer Fiddle Faddle butter toffee popcorn (or a little like Crunch and Munch, if you remember that!). Some people use the terms toffee popcorn, caramel corn and kettle corn interchangeably, but they do have different recipes. We’ll cover differences between toffee popcorn vs caramel popcorn and more!
Easy Toffee Popcorn Recipe
If you want to make toffee popcorn at home like you get at fairs or festivals, you’ll love this quick toffee popcorn recipe!
How To Make Toffee for Popcorn
How do you make toffee popcorn?
- Popcorn
- Butter
- Sugar
- Corn syrup
- Salt
- Vanilla
(see full recipe for popcorn toffee bel0w)
Before we get to the recipe for butter toffee popcorn, here are some questions people have when making this dessert snack:
What is the difference between toffee and caramel popcorn?
You may be wondering is toffee popcorn the same as caramel corn? Toffee popcorn has a lighter, buttery than caramel corn because toffee popcorn uses light corn syrup, while a caramel corn recipe uses dark corn syrup. The toffee for popcorn recipe is made with light corn syrup, butter, and sugar.
If you’re wondering how to make caramel corn, it’s a very similar recipe, except swapping out the light syrup for dark corn syrup and dark brown sugar.
Why is my caramel corn so sticky?
If your recipe for caramel corn or toffee corn is sticky, it might be because you didn’t dry it properly or long enough. Be sure to spread your caramel corn / toffee popcorn recipe in a single layer on foil and allow it to dry completely before storing it in an airtight container.
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Can you make a caramel corn recipe without corn syrup?
Yes, you can actually leave out the corn syrup from your caramel corn or toffee popcorn. The texture may be a little different than you’re accustomed to, but you will still have a yummy coated popcorn recipe to enjoy!
Kettle Corn vs Caramel Corn
Is kettle corn the same as caramel corn?
Kettle corn is not the same as caramel corn. Kettle corn is made by popping popcorn in sugar mixture, while caramel corn is made with butter, dark corn syrup, and dark brown sugar. Kettle corn is a lighter, sweet and salty treat. While caramel corn is just as yummy, it is a darker and richer simple sweet treat.
ALSO CHECK OUT: Kettle Corn On The Stove Recipe
Ok!
Let’s get to popcorn toffee recipe easy to make with your kids!
Easy Toffee Popcorn Recipe
This toffee popcorn homemade treat is an easy go-to for a birthday party treat or anytime you need an easy dessert or snacks for kids.
We didn’t add them for this recipe, but you can also make this butter toffee popcorn with nuts. Just add in a half cup of your favorite shelled nuts (like pecans or walnuts) to your toffee popcorn ingredients before adding the toffee popcorn sauce / glaze.
TIP: There is no special toffee popcorn machine. We use our popcorn popper like this one
all the time and we love it. It’s perfect for this butter toffee popcorn recipe (and other popcorn recipes), too! Some people make this with microwave popcorn, but we prefer to pop or own popcorn.
Some people have also told me that they doubled the toffee glaze because they like their popcorn with toffee sauce extra gooey. So keep that in mind.
Here’s how to make toffee popcorn in a pan…
Easy Toffee Popcorn
This crunchy toffee popcorn recipe is so buttery and sweet. You can vary the toffee popcorn ingredients by adding nuts or leaving them out.
Ingredients
- 10 cups popped popcorn (½ cup of kernels before popping)
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Butter a large, rectangular baking pan. Set aside.
- Pop popcorn. Remove unpopped kernels.
- Spread popcorn (and nuts, if using) in the pan.
- In a pot, melt the butter, sugar, corn syrup, salt on low. Stir continuously until the sugar has melted and the sauce has become smooth and thickened, usually around 8-10 minutes.
- Remove sauce from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla.
- Drizzle the sauce over the popcorn, stirring the until all the popcorn is completely coated.
- Bake for 30 minutes, stirring after the first 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven. Spread on lightly buttered tin foil and allow to cool completely.
- Store leftovers in a air-tight, covered container.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
10 cupsServing Size:
1 cupAmount Per Serving: Calories: 228Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 24mgSodium: 223mgCarbohydrates: 31gFiber: 1gSugar: 27gProtein: 1g
Nutrition information is estimated. Changes to the recipe and use of different brands may cause changes to the nutritional information to vary slightly from the ones provided here.
Cooking With Books
Here are children’s books that would be great paired up with this recipe (obviously, any popcorn theme book will work well!):
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THE TOFFEE POPCORN RECIPE!
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love this recipe, buttery & sweet, better than caramel popcorn, just one thing though, the toffee wasn’t enough to coat the popcorn, so I doubled for my second batch but only increased the popcorn just half, worked out perfect, next time I will try with roasted cashews & even adding chocolate chips after removing from oven… it is a keeper, thanks…
OOO! Good tip! I’m going to try doubling it. (I like gooey covered popcorn LOL)
The toffee had great flavor and perfect “crispness”. My only issue was with the texture. It was not drizzling consistency. It was much too thick, more gloppy. I ended up putting everything in a big buttered bowl to toss it. It didn’t cover the popcorn evenly, but at least tasted good. I only cooked it for 8 minutes, so don’t think it was cooking time. I’d love a cooking temperature for the candy so I could be more accurate.
ooo! Great feedback! Thank you. The next time we make it I will measure the temp and add it to the recipe. Thanks!
Hi loved your recipe have made twice and I plan on making it many more times I wouldn’t change a thing I don’t even use a timer on how long to cook the toffee or baking it perfectly coated every time I’m making more rite now last batch lasted 15 minutes lol
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! ❤️
Only cooked 8 minutes. Too thick to spread evenly on popcorn mixture. Wish it was thinner so the coating would be more like crunch and munch. What could be done to achieve this?
Love this recipe. So much tastier than Caramel corn.
My question is…..if using a candy thermometer what would you cook it to ?
Great recipe, easy to follow. Would like a more buttery flavor (too much vanilla flavor). Should I use 1/2 the vanilla and the other half butter flavor or just more butter?
Hi Dorian, I’ve never tried it, but some people double the recipe for the “toffee” topping. You could double it (but only add half the amount of vanilla) and see if that works.
Tried this today, in the UK so substituted the corn syrup with golden syrup. I cooked the caramel to 128 degrees C
I baked half in the oven as per the recipe, and half for an hour- the hour baked was much crispier!
Very pleased with the results, but I might cook the caramel to higher temp next time as it was a little grainy rather than shiny on the finished product.
Great! Thanks for the info!