Chocolate Caramel Popcorn is perfect to give in Christmas tins but it's also perfect to snack on during movies any time of year.

Chocolate Caramel Popcorn

Making homemade chocolate caramel popcorn is surprisingly easy and doesn't take very long to make.

There are only just a few ingredients to make this incredibly flavorful snack.

Ingredients in Chocolate Caramel Popcorn

• Popcorn - Not the butter variety, I prefer to use salt & oil
• Salted Butter -gives the caramel a nice flavor
• Light Brown Sugar
• Light Corn Syrup
• Sea Salt (optional)
• Dark Chocolate- melting chocolate for coating

That's it, just a few ingredients and a little bit of time to make this tasty holiday treat!

How to Make Chocolate Caramel Popcorn

The first step to making this popcorn snack is to pop the popcorn! Either by using unpopped popcorn kernels or by popping the popcorn in the bags.

Either way that you choose to prepare your popcorn, I find that using a salt and oil variety tastes absolutely wonderful with this chocolate and caramel combination. Of course, you can use a butter variety and that is completely up to you.

Once the popcorn is popped, add it to a very large bowl. That way, when you add in the caramel mixture it will be easy to turn and coat the popcorn inside the bowl without making a mess. If a very large bowl isn't available, you can always work in small batches.

In a small saucepan, the butter is melted and the light brown sugar is stirred in. Once the brown sugar melts completely, add the corn syrup, and turn up the heat to a low boil.

Allow the mixture to boil for about 4 minutes before removing it from the heat. At this point, the mixture is CAREFULLY poured over the popcorn a little at a time and the popcorn is stirred after each addition of the caramel mixture.

Once it is all mixed well, the coated popcorn is transferred to a cookie sheet and it is baked in the oven for 30 minutes. After each 10 minute increment, the mixture is stirred.

Once the caramel popcorn comes out of the oven at this time the sea salt is then sprinkled onto the mixture if you are using it.

TIP: Use parchment paper to line the baking sheet so that it doesn't stick to the cookie sheet. It's easy to cleanup, too!

RELATED: Caramel Gingerbread Popcorn

Chocolate Coated Popcorn

To coat the caramel popcorn after it is out of the oven to create chocolate covered popcorn, you will need to wait a few minutes for the caramel popcorn to harden and to cool. It doesn't take long to do so, just a couple of minutes. Melting the dark chocolate can be done while waiting for it to cool to save time.

Half of the caramel popcorn mixture is added back into the large bowl and a dark chocolate bar is melted according to the directions on the package. It is then drizzled over the popcorn and stirred to coat.

To make the process quicker for the chocolate popcorn to harden, place it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes before taking it out and mixing it in with the caramel popcorn.

Once it is all mixed, store the popcorn in an airtight container so that it doesn't go stale.

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Chocolate Caramel Popcorn Makes a Great Gift

This recipe for chocolate caramel popcorn makes 16 cups and it's a great way to make homemade Christmas treats as gifts in bulk! Dividing the popcorn into gift tins or bags is easy to do and it's a festive treat to give during the holidays.

Whichever way you choose to give this chocolate caramel popcorn as gifts, make sure to create an airtight seal for maximum freshness.