This is the best caramel recipe ever! The soft caramel is perfect for caramel popcorn, drizzling over ice cream, or apple dipping! You will love it!
If you are looking for other super easy and delicious treats try our easy homemade brownies or our chocolate crinkle cookies. Or you can find our entire dessert gallery here.
Anyway back to the topic at hand!
Homemade Caramel
Every fall we make this homemade caramel sauce and it is one of my kids favorite traditions! For good reason too because this stuff is to die for good.
You can use this homemade caramel in a multitude of ways. My two favorites are caramel popcorn and caramel ice cream sundaes. Not your thing? Cake? Brownies? Dip for apples? Yes, yes and yes.
Ingredients for Homemade Caramel
- Brown Sugar
- Butter
- Karo Syrup
- Sweetened Condensed Milk
It really is so simple! Like most of the recipes I post on this blog, it is cost effective. I always have all these ingredients on hand (granted, the Karo syrup is only on hand for this very recipe, but still.)
How to Make Caramel Popcorn
- Pour caramel over popcorn immediately after removing it from the stove. This recipe will cover three or four bags of microwave popcorn thoroughly.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to a week.
- This caramel is soft and so it will make soft, gooey caramel popcorn (my favorite kind). If you prefer a crunchier, harder caramel popcorn you can spread your caramel covered popcorn out on a greased baking sheet and bake at 250 for about an hour, turning every 15 minutes or so.
How to Make Caramel with Condensed Milk
You ready for the best and easiest caramel recipe?
If you make and love this recipe we would love for you to leave us a comment and let us know, we appreciate them so much!
Easy Caramel Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 1 C Brown Sugar
- ½ cup butter
- 1 C light Karo syrup
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
- Melt all ingredients in a saucepan over medium-low heat.
- Once caramel is boiling, cook for approximately two minutes stirring constantly.
- If using for caramel popcorn: Pour over popcorn immediately (this recipe will cover three bags of microwave popcorn thoroughly.)
Notes
How to Make Caramel Popcorn
- Pour caramel over popcorn immediately after removing it from the stove. This recipe will cover three or four bags of microwave popcorn thoroughly.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to a week.
- This caramel is soft and so it will make soft, gooey caramel popcorn (my favorite kind). If you prefer a crunchier, harder caramel popcorn you can spread your caramel covered popcorn out on a greased baking sheet and bake at 250 for about an hour, turning every 15 minutes or so.
Nutrition
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Angleyes74
Hi there! This recipe is AMAZING!! I use the PUFFCORN and it is wonderfull.. I also save some of caramel for dipping apples!!! I just put in the fridge in a covered dish!!! It lasted almost a month in the fridge before I finished it!!!
Jessica
Yay! That is so great to hear! Thanks friend!
Anonymous
I'm not sure what I did wrong, but after pouring the caramel over the popcorn and mixing it never hardened enough where you could eat it with your hands. We literally had to use a fork it was so sticky. Not sure why. We save the rest to use to dip fruit in. It tasted pretty good!
Heidi@OneCreativeMommy.com
Hi, Jessica. I just came over from pinterest, and I didn't even realize it was your site until I went to pin it myself! I think I'm going to make some of this right now!
Casey Gragg
I plan on making this recipe BUT I'm going to used AIR popped popcorn (don't have a microwave)and I'm going to go with MORE popcorn than what your recipe called for!! I'm not looking for a thick covering of the popcorn but just enough to give me the taste and maybe lower the intake of tons of lovely caramel (honestly I could eat tons of this) but I have to cut the calories some way!! just my thought!! Thanks I'll come back and give you feedback!!
Jessica
genius! Thanks friend!
Anonymous
Could someone let me know how much or size can of condensed milk
Jessica
I'm so sorry! It is the regular 14 oz can! Good luck!
Kara
This is our new favorite recipe for caramel corn. Thank you for sharing!
Anonymous
Love the recipe and so easy! My only suggestion (and maybe you have it there) is to pick the seeds out BEFORE you poor the carmel. Darn me! :) Amazingly good though! :)
Jamee
I just made this with my four year old daughter. We added peanuts and m&Ms and it's super yummy. Thanks for the great recipe.
Tameria Solorzano
I made this super simple and yes delicious treat for myself and my kids last week... Needless to say I have bought enough ingredients to make 6 two gallon buckets for Christmas family gifts!!and another batch for home.... Yummy
Kristen
I made this for my son's 1st birthday party (carnival theme). It got RAVE reviews. My cousin has since made about 15 batches for the nurses she works with. I am about to use the caramel in teacher gifts too. We can't get enough!!Thanks for the fabulous recipe!!
Jessica
oh my gosh that is so great to hear! Thank you so much friend!
Anonymous
Could you add marshmellows to this recipe?
Michelle
Mine shrunk up as well. I am assuming that I used to much condensed milk. I use 1/2 of a 12 ox. can. How big of a can are you talking about?
Christy
What size can for condensed milk?
Miranda Grimm
Thanks for sharing! I found this on Pinterest and tested it out for a get together! Here are my results: http://pintriedit.com/homemade-caramel-popcorn/
Melissa
What size can of sweetened condensed milk did you use? This sounds delicious!!
Mom on a mission
Did you use light or dark brown sugar?
Anonymous
hi sarah.. you said that this popcorn recipe is a soft one. but after a while the csramel will harden right? it wont be sticky?
Jessica
Hi! Actually no, it shouldn't harden! To me, that is what makes it so darn delicious! I hate popcorn that feels like its cracking your teeth, but it's completely personal preference. If you want a hardened popcorn ball type recipe this isn't the one for you. Good luck!
Bobbi
Do you think you can use hulless popcorn>
Jessica
Honestly, I have never tried, so I can't say for sure. I imagine it would work? Let me know if you try it! Good luck :)
Amber
Wow, that was so easy and so dang good. Thanks for sharing. It was a perfect after church snack.
Jessica
Amber, thanks for coming back to let me know how it went, you totally made my day! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. All the best! :)
Cher
I can't wait to try this! If I use a hot-air popper, do you have any idea what measurements of unpopped kernals, OR about how many cups of popped popcorn would equal the 3 bags of microwave popcorn?
Sarah
Cher, I was wondering about that too so I looked it up! According to Pop Secret, one bag of microwaveable popcorn contains 3 tbsp. of unpopped popcorn. This translates to 4 cups of popped popcorn. So - for three bags of popcorn we would want to air pop 9 tbsp. of kernels to make 12 cups of popped popcorn! :)
Cher
Thanks Sarah :)