This vegan caramel popcorn is chock full of delicious maple flavor. You’re going to be addicted. Consider yourself warned.
Unfortunately, vegan caramel is quite difficult to find in your average American grocery store. As a result, vegan caramel popcorn is even more tough to locate and purchase. So basically, if you are craving vegan caramel popcorn, you’re going to have to make it yourself. It’s not hard! Let’s do this!
How to Make Vegan Caramel Popcorn
1. You’re going to want to pop some popcorn. I start by popping about 1/3 cup of yellow corn kernels in my air popper. (See photo 1 below.)
This produces roughly 11 cups of popped corn. If you don’t have an air popper, you can pop your corn on the stove or use microwaveable popcorn. If you use packaged microwave popcorn bag, each bag contains roughly 13 cups of popcorn when fully popped.
2. When you’ve popped some corn, preheat your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or nonstick silicon liner, and set aside. (One cookie sheet works fine if you only have one.) (See photo 3 below.)
For the Caramel:
4. In a small sauce pan, place coconut milk (full fat variety, from a can), mayple syrup, cane juice crystals, vegan butter, and salt. (See photo 4.)
5. Place saucepan on medium heat and gently stir with a nonstick spatula or wire whisk. (See photo 5.)
6. Stir every 15-20 seconds as mixture comes to a boil.
7. Continue stirring frequently as mixture comes to a boil. Once mixture has been boiling for 5 minutes, check the texture, by placing a few drops of boiling caramel on to your parchment lined sheet pan. If caramel remains liquidy when individual drops are placed on a cool surface, you know it needs to boil longer.
8. If caramel becomes sticky and stringy when a drop of it is placed on a cool surface, then you know it is ready. As one final check before mixing the caramel in your popcorn, drizzle a few drops of caramel sauce on to a kernel of popped popcorn. If the popcorn doesn’t shrivel up, and the caramel is still fairly sticky/stringy, then it’s ready for your baking powder (which is optional). (See photo 8 below.)
9. Quickly stir in baking powder, and remove caramel sauce from heat.
10. Slowly drizzle caramel sauce over your popped popcorn while stirring.
11. Quickly mix caramel sauce and popcorn until popcorn is fairly evenly coated. This becomes more difficult to do as the caramel cools and becomes thicker.
12. Spread popcorn onto parchment lined cookie sheets (I recommend using 2 cookie sheets for a thinner layer of popcorn) or roll popcorn into balls.
13. Bake popcorn at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for about 50-55 minutes. Allow popcorn to cool completely for several minutes before eating or storing. Store in an airtight container for 1 week, but I guarantee it won’t last that long.
More Tips for Making Vegan Caramel Popcorn
- Watch your boiling caramel like a hawk. After it has been boiling for a few minutes, you need to start testing the texture by drizzling it over your parchment paper or over a piece of popcorn. Because the exact temperature of your stove, the fat content of your coconut milk, and the grade of your maple syrup can all affect the time needed to boil your caramel, you really have to be careful.
- Watch for a stringy and stretchy texture. (See photo 8 above.) Then you know it’s done. Patience wins here. If you pour your caramel sauce on your popcorn too soon, the popcorn will shrivel up, and you’ll be very very disappointed.
More Vegan Party Food
Looking for other great vegan party food recipes? Here’s some ideas.
- Vegan Nacho Cheese
- Vegan Chicken Salad
- Vegan Southwest Black Bean Salad
- Spicy Seasoned Pretzels
- Vegan Cheese Ball
- Vegan Baked Spring Rolls
Amazing Vegan Caramel Popcorn
Equipment
- air popper (OR large sauce pan with lid OR microwave)
- medium sauce pan
- cookie sheet x 2
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup popcorn kernels
- 1/2 cup coconut milk (from a can)
- 2/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon cane juice crystals (or other granulated sugar of your choice)
- 1 teaspoon vegan butter (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder (optional) (may substitute with 1/8 teaspoon baking sodea)
Instructions
- Pop your popcorn kernels in an air popper if you have one. Otherwise, pop your corn using the stovetop method (see link above) or in a microwave using packaged vegan microwaveable popcorn. Place popped popcorn in a large bowl and set aside–this should amount to roughly 11 cups of popped corn.
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or nonstick silicon liner, and set aside.
- In a small sauce pan, place coconut milk, mayple syrup, cane juice crystals, vegan butter, and salt.
- Place saucepan on medium heat and gently stir with a nonstick spatula or wire whisk.
- Stir every 15-20 seconds as mixture comes to a boil.
- Continue stirring frequently as mixture comes to a boil. Once mixture has been boiling for 5 minutes, check the texture, by dropping a few drops of boiling caramel on to your parchment lined sheet pan. If caramel remains liquidy when individual drops are placed on a cool surface, you know it needs to boil longer. If caramel becomes sticky and stringy when a drop of it is placed on a cool surface, then you know it is ready. As one final check before mixing the caramel in your popcorn, drizzle a few drops of caramel sauce on to a piece of popcorn. If the popcorn doesn't shrivel up, and the caramel is still fairly sticky/stringy, then it's ready for your baking powder (which is optional). Quickly stir in baking powder, and remove caramel sauce from heat.
- Slowly drizzle over your popped popcorn while stirring.
- Quickly mix caramel sauce and popcorn until popcorn is fairly evenly coated. This becomes more difficult to do as the caramel cools and becomes thicker. Spread popcorn onto parchment lined cookie sheets (I recommend using 2 cookie sheets for a thinner layer of popcorn) or roll popcorn into balls.
- Bake popcorn at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for 50-55 minutes
- Allow popcorn to cool completely for several minutes before eating or storing. Store in an airtight container for 1 week, but I guarantee you it won't last that long.
Notes
- Boiling time for your caramel sauce will vary significantly based on the temperature of your stove, the fat content of your coconut milk, and the grade of your maple syrup. If you just keep stirring and testing the texture by dropping a few drips of the boiling caramel on a cool surface, you can make sure it gets to the right texture before pouring it on the popcorn. There is nothing worse than wasting a whole batch of ingredients when too-liquid caramel makes your popcorn shrivel up to nothing.
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