Delicious and Easy Homemade Snickers Popcorn Recipe

This recipe for a Snickers popcorn was originally a sponsored post. It’s so fun to make, and some links in this article are affiliate links that may earn me a commission if you purchase through them.

Snickers are my weakness. They’re my favorite Halloween candy ever. So it’s not a big stretch to imagine that Snickers popcorn is one of my favorite treats.

It includes caramel. And plenty of chocolate. After all, those are my two favorite parts of the Snickers candy bar, aside from the nougat and peanuts. And that’s how my Snickers popcorn recipe was born.

Do I need to make my own caramel for this?

For this Snickers popcorn, you do. The caramel sauce you can buy in the store or even caramel candies you can melt don’t make proper caramel corn.

But it isn’t hard, I promise!

I make caramel all the time, whether it’s caramel sauce or filling for a treat or something else entirely, so I knew adapting my caramel sauce would be a piece of cake.

This recipes uses brown sugar because it makes a deeper caramel taste, but you can make this with granulated sugar if you don’t have brown sugar.

Can I use microwave popcorn or store bought popcorn?

I always pop my own popcorn on the stove, but this would work equally well with a popcorn maker that uses kernels.

Microwave popcorn tends to be drier and saltier and is not idea for making this Snickers popcorn. Worst case, you can use it, but I would not recommend it.

If you really really want to do microwave popcorn, don’t use the bags of popcorn. Instead, get one of the cool silicone microwave popcorn poppers. It’s not quite the same, but it’s a much better option.

Store bought popcorn is a better choice. It’s larger and softer pieces of popcorn, but make sure you buy unflavored popcorn. You don’t want butter or cheese popcorn or anything else. If you go this route, the SkinnyPop popcorn would be my choice.

But do stove popped popcorn if you can. I love the flavor of stove popped popcorn.

You know exactly what’s in it, it pops every kernel, and – best of all – you get a mini workout before you eat.

Not familiar with this technique? I made a video tutorial on how to pop popcorn on the stove that’ll get you popping in no time.

How many cups of kernels do you need for four quarts of popcorn?

When you stove pop your popcorn or use a air popper, it takes just a little over a cup of kernels to get to four quarts of popped popcorn.

If you know your air popper tends to pop fewer kernels or if your popcorn isn’t fresh or high quality, use a little extra. If you have more popcorn than what you need for this recipe? Oh no… you’ll have to munch on it.

I will also say that I find Orville Redenbacher popcorn pops the most kernels and works best. I’ve tried other brands – and I use private label for so many ingredients – but they honestly don’t pop as well.

And to measure your four quarts? Four cups makes a quart. I use my four cup liquid measuring cup, and that’s the easiest method I’ve found to measure it out.

Why do you add baking soda to the caramel?

When you add baking soda, it fizzes up like mad – much like it does when you add cream if you make caramel sauce. The fizzing is important.

All that fizzing makes air bubbles that create a chewy caramel after it bakes and not a brittle caramel that isn’t fun to try to bite into. You don’t want candy on the outside of your caramel corn, so don’t skip this step!

What’s the best way to melt chocolate?

First, use quality chocolate. The chocolate chips and other relatively cheap chocolate you usually have in the pantry tends to have a lot of “stuff” in it that helps the chocolate retain its shape and not melt well.

You want high quality chocolate so that it melts smoothly and evenly. I cannot stress this enough. If you use low quality chocolate, you need to add just a little oil to it as it melts so that you can stir it. We all know that isn’t ideal.

I love chocolate callets, which are discs ideal for melting. Bigger benefit? They taste better than cheap chocolate, too.

To melt them, you can put them in a microwave safe bowl and zap them for 30 seconds, then stir and repeat at 20 second intervals until most of the chocolate melts.

However, I prefer to use a heavy pot that retains heat and melt them over low heat, again stirring regularly. This makes it far less likely that you scorch the chocolate but doesn’t require a double boiler.

And yes, either way, stop heating your chocolate when most of the chocolate has melted. You want to let the residual heat melt the last bit, which helps keep the chocolate properly tempered and avoids burning it.

How to Make Snickers Popcorn

Make the popcorn

Make your popcorn. I made a big bowl of it and used about 4 quarts of what I made. This? This is enough to make a batch of Snickers popcorn and have some left over.

Line a big roasting pan with tin foil to make cleanup super easy. Trust me, you don’t want to have to try to scrape cooled caramel off your pan.

I used two layers to cover the bottom and all the way up the sides of both the long end and the short end. Pro tip: I used the foil from my stove popped popcorn for the top of the two layers, so it was already just a touch lightly greased from the popcorn hitting it as it popped.

If you aren’t using that tin foil, lightly spray your tin foil with nonstick spray so that your caramel corn sticks less. Put your popped popcorn in there to await the caramel-y goodness that’s coming.

Make the caramel

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees – and no, that isn’t a typo. You want it much cooler than usual because you don’t want to overcook your caramel and cause it to crystallize. This stays just at 250 degrees.

While it preheats, make the caramel. Add the butter, brown sugar, salt, and corn syrup to a heavy pot that is bigger than you think you’ll need.

The one I used was barely big enough, to be honest, but I knew that going in and was ready to pour the caramel as it started to foam. I like my heavy cast iron pot because it distributes heat evenly, which means I’m less likely to scorch my caramel.

Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring it constantly to ensure nothing on the bottom burns. Bring it to the soft ball stage, and remove it from the heat once it hits 240 degrees.

I used to use a candy thermometer to measure this, and sometimes I still do. However, it is a pain to clean. Usually I use my digital kitchen thermometer which is a quick instant read.

Again, because I have a cast iron pot that retains heat beautifully, I pull mine at about 237 because I know it will heat those last couple degrees while I’m getting my baking soda ready.

Once you remove you pot from the heat, add the baking soda and stir to combine. It will lighten in color a bit and start to foam more than when it was boiling.

Create your caramel corn

Immediately pour it over your prepped popcorn in the roaster once you have it mixed in. Stir the popcorn gently with a spatula until the popcorn is almost all coated with the caramel sauce.

By this point, your oven should be preheated. Pop it in your 250 degree oven for a half hour, pulling it out at the 15 minute mark to stir it and again at the 30 minute mark to stir it.

While your Snickers popcorn is cooking, chop your actual Snickers candy bars into small chunks.

Pro tip: I find it easiest to chop candy when it’s frozen. If you remember, put it in the freezer the night before you make this.

Once the popcorn has baked for 30 minutes and you’ve stirred it that second time, add the Snickers pieces and stir again to distribute throughout your popcorn. Return it to the oven for another five minutes just to let the Snickers soften up a bit.

Once you pull the Snickers popcorn from the oven, let it cool just a bit while you melt some dark chocolate to drizzle over it.

Lay your popcorn flat to get chocolate drizzled over more of it. I flatten the two sheets of tin foil I’ve used and place the popcorn in a layer on each one so I’m not using more materials.

Using a fork, drizzle the chocolate over the popcorn in lines going in various directions to give it a fun look and pattern.

Let the chocolate harden for five to ten minutes, then break it up into smaller chunks and serve your Snickers popcorn immediately. Just don’t tell anyone I was doing a little quality control before I “officially” served it.

This will store in a sealed container for two to three days.

Who will you share my Snickers popcorn recipe with?

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