Simple Toffee Popcorn Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between toffee popcorn and caramel popcorn? ›

Although similar, toffee and caramel are not the same. Toffee is made out of just caramelized sugar and butter, unlike caramel which contains corn syrup and sometimes milk or cream. As a result, toffee popcorn is more brittle and crunchy in flavor and has a distinct buttery taste.

Movie theaters use butter-flavored oil, which has a lower water content than butter so it makes popcorn less soggy. Real clarified butter has the same effect. To make it, melt 2 sticks butter in a glass measuring cup in the microwave. Let sit for a few minutes; the butter will separate into 3 layers.

Can you just melt butter and put it on popcorn? Yes absolutely – it makes the best buttered popcorn if you do it this way. Be sure to shake it so the butter is evenly distributed throughout the kernels.

Popcorn is full of fibre and pairing it with some mix-ins like nuts, seeds and chickpeas are a great way to make this a more balanced snack. If you are really looking for a lower sugar option, skip the chocolate and sweeter mix-ins (although I will never personally say no to chocolate!).

The difference between toffee and caramel is that caramel is made with white granulated sugar and cooked to 340 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas toffee is made with butter and brown sugar and cooked to 295 - 309 degrees Fahrenheit.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends we limit our intake of free sugars to ideally 5% total energy intake (approx. 6 teaspoons of sugar a day for a woman) [REF 11], so if you were to eat a bag of Cineworld's toffee popcorn, you would be eating 5 days' worth of sugar!

The flavor all comes down to one ingredient: Flavacol. You've likely never heard of Flavacol because, really, only movie theaters use it. Essentially, it's butter-flavored salt. It's a really fine, bright orange powder that adds that buttery flavor you crave and the signature yellow color.

Before you pour melted butter over your freshly popped popcorn, stop! Consider clarifying that butter. Clarified butter is an easy, quick way to get that theater-butter flavor without getting soggy popcorn.

Give it some time to cool. If it's still tasting soggy after 1–2 hours of cooling at room temperature, you may have under-baked the caramel corn. 1 hour in the oven is usually plenty. Additionally, be sure to cook the caramel on the stove for long enough.

My method is to melt the butter then pour it into a large empty bowl and roll the bowl around to spread over the surface. Then dump the hot popped popcorn in, and use a spoon to stir it and mix it up well. Each popcorn will pick up just a bit of butter on each one, and none will be soggy.

Can dogs eat popcorn? ›

Dogs can eat popcorn as long as it's plain and air-popped popcorn, and only eaten in moderation. However, any added seasonings we love to slather on top which can be bad for dogs, and you shouldn't feed them this type of popcorn.

FLAVACOL is a very fine seasoned salt that sticks to the popcorn, whereas a ground salt will tend to fall off. Adding it to the oil as you pop improves the coverage without any fear of burning. This is the tried - and - true original popcorn salt!

First taste fresh buttery caramel, followed by sweet toffee increasing in intensity as you finish.

As to the dividing line — toffee is cooked at higher temperatures to give it the characteristic crunchy or hard chewy texture. Caramel, on the other hand, is allowed to retain more of its moisture and can be kept at the consistency of a viscous sauce or thickened into a softer, chewy candy.

While both caramel corn and kettle corn are sweet, caramel corn is richer in flavor and texture. Historically sweetened with molasses, caramel corn is most-often candy-coated. The thin, crunchy, sweet coating is derived from melted sugar. The coating is applied after popping.

When it comes to butterscotch and toffee you've got a lot of the same ingredients. They also use butter, vanilla, and heavy whipping cream, but it's the sugar that differentiates these two from caramel. While caramel uses white sugar, both butterscotch and toffee use brown sugar.