Early in our marriage, I would make caramel corn every week or two. It started off pretty simple and straight forward, but I wanted to switch things up so I started experimenting. I landed on a combination of chocolate and peanut butter in the caramel, plus a mix of Chex and popcorn, finished with nuts, chocolate chips and sea salt.
Of course our diets have changed and I went over a year without making caramel corn. That is, until I Googled “dairy free caramel corn” and was greeted with hundreds of recipes. I poured through them, found a few common denominators and combined it with my old reliable recipe, and that’s how this recipe came to be. It’s crunchy, sweet, salty, and an amazing treat that so many people can enjoy.
Dairy Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Caramel Corn (also gluten free, vegan)
Servings:
This recipe is crunchy, sweet, salty, and an amazing treat that so many people can enjoy.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup popcorn kernels (or one bag of microwaveable popcorn) popped, unpopped kernels removed
- 1 12oz box Corn Chex
- 1/2 cup vegan butter or margarine
- 1/3 cup coconut oil
- 1.5 cups brown sugar
- 1/2 cup light corn syrup
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 oz nuts like peanuts, slivered almonds, cashew halves etc
- 1/4 cup Lilyu0026#x27;s dark chocolate chips
- 1 tbsp sea salt
Directions:
- In a pan on the stove over medium heat, melt the butter/margarine and coconut oil. Whisk in the cocoa powder to ensure all clumps are worked out.
- Add the brown sugar and corn syrup to the fats. Stir until just combined and bring to a bubble.
- Once bubbling, turn off the heat and add the baking soda and whisk in. Then add the peanut butter and whisk in.
- In a large bowl, combine the popped popcorn (with the unpopped kernels discared – very important) and the corn Chex. Pour the caramel over top and stir to gently to combine and coat evenly. Add the nuts, chocolate chips, and sea salt. Toss together to combine.
- Pour out onto the counter on top of a layer of butcher paper and try not to eat it all immediately so it can cool off. But if you do eat it all immediately, whou0026#x27;s gonna know, really?
Hey there! A lot of popcorn bags have butter— which did you use? Thanks for posting this!
I just popped the popcorn myself on the stove top in a pot. It was 1/2 cup of unpopped kernels.
Got ya — thank you so much!
Getting all the ingredients tomorrow. Which vegan butter did you use??
I don’t even remember – any kind works though.
Real caramel corn requires oven baking. It improves the crunch and without baking the popcorn will not keep. It will soak up the moisture from the topping and become.chewy. After coating popcorn, bake at 250 degrees in a.convection oven for 1 hour tossing every 15 minutes. Then spread out to cool and store in air right container. It is a necessary step in making real caramel corn and one of the reasons.why it is a labor intensive endeavor. The popcorn should be popped from mushroom kernels. When popped at a high temp, it forms a ball. That prevents pieces from being broken off. It is the same kernels used for kettle corn.
For real caramel, yes. But this caramel, due to the lack of butter, cools to a hard crunch and I wouldn’t recommend baking it.
So excited to make this! I just had to start going dairy and soy free as I nurse my little one, and my husband is gluten free. I’ve been craving something just like this!
This sounds great. Do you happen to have the original recipe with all the bad stuff in it. That is the one I am interested in. lol…no, seriously.
This was delicious. Kids and adults so gobbled it up.
I shared it a very long time ago (obviously when we were horrible at photography. Ignore the photos and the recipe will serve you well. :) You can find it here.