Coconut, almonds, and chocolate enhance classic caramel corn in this recipe. This popcorn has a rich, melt-in-your mouth, crunchy addictiveness that causes people to use such words as 'crack' and 'sinful'.
Ingredients
- butter: 1 cup
- brown sugar: 2 cups
- corn syrup: 0.5 cup
- ½ teaspoons salt: 1 piece
- coconut: 1 cup (divided, shredded)
- peanuts: 0.25 cup (chopped)
- almonds: 0.25 cup (divided, sliced)
- vanilla extract: 2 tsp
- baking soda: 1 tsp
- ground cinnamon: 0.25 tsp (optional)
- pinch ground nutmeg: 1 piece (optional)
- pinch ground allspice: 1 piece (optional)
- virgin coconut oil: 2 Tbsp
- butter: 1 Tbsp
- vegetable oil: 1 Tbsp
- unpopped popcorn: 0.5 cup
- chocolate chips: 0.75 cup
- virgin coconut oil: 1 Tbsp
- shortening: 1 Tbsp
- confectioners' sugar, sifted: 1 Tbsp
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
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Melt 1 cup butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt into melted butter; bring to a boil, stirring constantly, reduce heat to low, and simmer caramel sauce without stirring until slightly thickened, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir 1/3 cup coconut, peanuts, 2 tablespoons almonds, vanilla extract, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice into caramel.
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Heat 2 tablespoons coconut oil, 1 tablespoon butter, and vegetable oil together in a large pot over high heat. Pour popcorn into hot oil, cover the pot with a lid, and shake pot constantly over heat until all popcorn is popped, 1 to 3 minutes.
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Pour caramel sauce over hot popcorn and quickly stir to coat. Turn popcorn out onto prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle 1/3 cup coconut and remaining 2 tablespoons almonds over popcorn.
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Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes. Set oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source and preheat the oven's broiler. Broil popcorn until coconut and popcorn are lightly toasted, about 30 seconds.
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Melt chocolate chips, 1 tablespoon coconut oil, and shortening together in a saucepan until all are melted and the chocolate sauce is thin and pourable. Drizzle chocolate sauce and sprinkle remaining 1/3 cup coconut over popcorn; dust with confectioners' sugar. Lift parchment paper off of the baking sheets and transfer popcorn to the refrigerator to cool completely, about 45 minutes. Break into palm-sized chunks and store in airtight containers.
