Perfect for party favors, friends, and family; these ooey-gooey caramel popcorn balls are just DELICIOUS.
Making caramel popcorn balls.
As I’ve mentioned before we love family movie night! AND we love popcorn! We tend to trade off between flavors (candied, kettle, butter) but the one we make the MOST often is Caramel Popcorn!
We make it three ways – these caramel popcorn balls, or more loose gooey popcorn or baked and crunchy popcorn!
The great thing about caramel popcorn balls is everyone get’s the same amount, no fighting… The BAD thing about it is they tend to be more messy… BUT hello… more CARAMEL!
I made a video showing how I create the caramel popcorn balls, they are actually super easy and a ton of fun, and something even the kiddo’s can help with.
And if your kids are anything like mine they LOVE to help in the kitchen. Sometimes the struggle is just finding something safe for them to help with!
So which way do you serve caramel popcorn? Gooey, caramelly, crunchy? There is NO WRONG ANSWER! The good news is you can have it both ways!
Go here to get the caramel popcorn ball labels (for neighbor gifts)!
Just take me to the popcorn ball recipe already!
If you’d rather skip my tips and tricks for getting perfect caramel popcorn balls, along with links to other caramel recipes and get straight to this delicious caramel treat – simply scroll to the bottom of the page where you can find the printable recipe card.
How to make caramel popcorn balls
For the popcorn balls pour the sauce over 1 – 1/ 1/2 batches of popcorn. Stir then let the popcorn cool enough to touch it without burning your hands.
Speaking of sticking, you’ll want to spray your hands with cooking spray when you start forming the balls.
Some of the balls might need to be stuck back together, so keep checking on your cooling caramel popcorn.
How to make gooey caramel popcorn
If you just want gooey popcorn pour over 2-3 batches of popcorn stir and serve. The more popcorn the less messy.
How to make crunchy caramel popcorn
If you want crunchy popcorn use 3 batches of popped popcorn. preheat your oven to 250.
Spread the caramel popcorn out on a jelly roll pan and bake for 20-30 mins, stirring occasionally. Then let it cool and break up the chunks.
To make these popcorn balls you’ll need
- Candy thermometer (<- this one is my favorite)
- Popcorn popper
- Mixing bowl
- Nonstick cooking spray
- Jelly roll pan
Gooey caramel popcorn balls
If you love these caramel popcorn balls as much as we do, please leave a 5 star review and be sure to share on Facebook and Pinterest! If you want to stay updated on new recipes sign up for my newsletter and join my Facebook Group!
If you love caramel popcorn balls you’ll love these other gooey caramel recipes!
Salted Caramel Cheesecake | Caramel Brownies | Cheeescake Nachos with Caramel Sauce
Chocolate Caramel Tart | Buttery Homemade Caramel | Caramel Marshmallow
Connect with Ashlee Marie Online!
To watch me make this caramel popcorn play the video in the recipe card. There will also be a short teaser auto playing.
You can find all my cooking show style recipe videos on YouTube, or my short recipe videos on Facebook Watch, or my Facebook Page, or right here on our website with their corresponding recipes.
Caramel Popcorn Balls
Ingredients
- 1 C butter
- 1 C light corn syrup
- 2 C packed light brown sugar
- ½ C granulated sugar
- 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 15-30 C popped popcorn less will be messier, and gooier, but I like it, more for a looser caramel popcorn
Instructions
- Bring the butter, syrup, and sugars to a boil, keep bubbling over med heat until it hits the softball stage (240 degrees – use a candy thermometer)
- Add the sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla and boil 1 more min – let it cool a few mins so it doesn’t shrink the popcorn.
- pour over the popcorn and stir
popcorn balls
- use 1 – 1 1/2 batches of air popped popcorn for these balls
- spread the popcorn out and let it start too cool
- spray your hands with cooking spray and portion it out into 8 sections and ball up.
- Continue to check back and ball and turn until they cool enough that they stay in their ball forms
gooey caramel popcorn
- use 2-3 batches of air popped popcorn for this – serve immediately
crunchy caramel popcorn
- use 3 batches of popped popcorn for this – stir and coat as evenly as you can
- IF you want crunchy popcorn preheat your oven to 250 – spread it out in a pan and place in the oven and bake for like 20-30 mins, stirring occasionally, until it crisps up
EMERY OGILVIE
SOUNDS GOOD !
Kate
The popcorn turned out great and the video was super helpful! Will definitely make again
Marion Lunsford
Hey Ashley, I love the popcorn balls!! Made them with my Granddaughter, but if you didn’t want to make them into balls could you just make it and put it into bags and eat it that way as Carmel corn ???
Ashlee Marie
totally, I’d add more popcorn so it’s not QUITE so caramelly – I add a whole nother batch of popcorn when just eating it as caramel popcorn.
Cyndi
Hi Lost my old family recipe for Caramel Corn Balls when my computer crashed! So when I was telling my grandson how we used to make it when his dad was his age he was excited to make some. I found your recipe and I have to say it sounded so familiar. Needless to say it worked and it was WONDERFUL! The only thing I let him do most of the work and we goofed on how much butter? He thought a stick was a cup?? Live and learn. It still came out great. The only thing we did differently was we use Butter on our hands not spray. Thanks for your help and sharing.
Ashlee Marie
you are so welcome! I’m so glad it worked out!
Bev
Do you think I could use the Dulce de Leche condensed milk? This really does look like a great recipe. Can’t wait to try it.
Ashlee Marie
depending on how thick it is it could work. Candy making is chemistry so you don’t want to change too much.
Tam
Yea Thank you for the recipe. I don’t eat them but the family does. LOVE YA
Layla
do you have the nutrition facts on here too?
Ashlee Marie
they should be at the bottom of the recipe card
Betty Madara
Thank you for the recipe,Love these Carmel pop corn balls,giving it a 5star!
Frances Wood
Can you make the popcorn balls ahead of time. Like 4 or 5 days?
Ashlee Marie
no, they are best eaten fresh. The caramel continues to dry out and it get’s hard to eat them so I don’t recommend it.
Carol Richardson
Hi thanks for sharing I’ve made this recipe and every one loved them I did it with regular sweet condensed milk but I just made it with chocolate sweet condensed milk to and then I’m doing it with caramel sweetened condensed milk next eagle brand has them in those flavors and then 2 more batches of the regular sweetened condensed milk I cant keep them round very long thanks again for sharing
Ashlee Marie
WHAAAAAAA I have never seen chocolate or caramel sweetened condensed milk!!! I am so looking for those next time I hit up the store!
Carol Knighten
great recipe.
Ashlee Marie
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you like them
CasSandra DeWeber
What would happen if i used less butter? this is similar to an old recipe i found in highschool but calls for twice as much butter
Ashlee Marie
depending on how thick it is it could work. Candy making is chemistry so you don’t want to change too much. But feel free to try it!
linda
Love the recipe followed it turned out great. Just watched the video and noticed when you got to the milk you said evaporated milk!! I could see you did use sweetened condensed milk.
Ashlee Marie
just said the wrong thing in the video and didn’t catch it until it had been live for like over a year. ugh
Michelle Orndorff
I don’t have an air popper, but I have a device that I can pop regular popcorn kernels in the microwave in. When you say “batches,” how much popcorn is that? In one place you said 30 cups (I think) to go with the one batch of caramel. Is that how much I should make?
Ashlee Marie
You should have 15-30 cups of popped popcorn depending on how many popcorn balls you want. That should be 1/2 – 1 cup of popcorn kernels