I feel like I don’t really need to add words to this post… the pictures speak for themselves. This dark chocolate caramel popcorn recipe is a copycat of the famous Harry & David Moose Munch. And if you were wanting to learn just how to make caramel popcorn, you could easily skip the chocolate drizzle and it would still be delicious.
There’s lots of flavored popcorn recipes out there, and there’s lots of ways to approach them. In this one, feel free to use any kind of nuts that you want, or skip them entirely. You can use microwave popcorn, pop kernels over the stove, or buy plain pre-popped popcorn. We had a bag of kernels hanging around the house, so we popped our own popcorn. If you aren’t sure how to go about doing that, here’s a quick tutorial:
How to make popcorn on the stove: Using a large heavy bottom saucepan, toss in a couple of individual kernels and about 2 TBS of oil. Cover the pan with a lid. Heat on medium heat until you hear those few kernels pop. Quickly add 1/2 cup of kernels and return the lid to the pot. Begin shaking the pan continuously as the popcorn pops, and remove from heat once the popping subsides to one pop per 2-3 seconds. This will yield about 16 cups of popped popcorn, so if you’re making Moose Munch, you’ll have a bit extra to salt and flavor however you like!
| Dark Chocolate Caramel Popcorn (Moose Munch Copycat) | | Print |
- 12 cups popped popcorn
- 1.5 cups nuts of choice (peanuts, pecans, cashews, etc)
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- ¾ cup butter
- ½ cup light corn syrup
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1.5 tsp shortening
- Preheat oven to 250F
- Spread popped popcorn and nuts into a large roasting pan, or divide between two pans.
- In a heavy bottom saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup. Cook over medium heat for about 8 minutes, or until mixture comes to a boil.
- Continue boiling for 2 minutes.
- Remove pan from heat and stir in baking soda.
- Pour warm mixture over popcorn and nuts and stir well so that the popcorn is coated.
- Bake for 60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and transfer popcorn to wax paper, don't break into chunks.
- Allow to cool completely.
- Once cooled, melt chocolate chips with shortening in the microwave in 30 second intervals on 50% power, stirring after each one. Alternately, you can melt chocolate in a double boiler.
- Using a fork or spoon, generously drizzle chocolate over the popcorn and let stand 3-4 hours until chocolate is set. Break into pieces and enjoy!
I found this recipe for caramel gives the popcorn a good coating, but if you want to really coat those suckers, feel free to increase the amount of caramel by 50%!
You can drizzle the chocolate over the caramel using a spoon or a fork – I found that to be the easiest way with the fastest clean-up. You can also place the chocolate into a ziploc bag, nip off the corner with a pair of scissors, and squeeze it on that way.
This recipes makes a lot of popcorn, so feel free to cut it down if you’re just looking to whip up a quick snack. We packaged this up in cellophane bags for Christmas gifts this year, and we still had some leftover!
You Might Like These Posts:
Cracker Jacks Copycat Recipe
How to Make Yummy Homemade Caramel
Salted Caramel Cocoa | Our Christmas Eve Tradition
Dark Chocolate Marshmallow Halloween Waffles
Opinions: Kernel Season’s Popcorn Seasonings Review and GIVEAWAY!!
Peanut Butter Stuffed Brownies with Boozy Caramel Sauce
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars
Ghirardelli Square – Chocolate Heaven
Hi Erin!
I recently tried this recipe to give as a gift and hoped to put it inside small bags. However, the dark chocolate didn’t exactly harden- it was a little messy even after being in the fridge for a few hours. Any ideas on why it might not have hardened/things we could have done differently? We used Nestle dark chocolate morsels. Thanks!!
-Brenna
HI I found your recipe on Pinterest. I am doing a Round Up blog post later in March for National Chocolate Caramel Day (the 19th) and am interested in including this recipe in that round up. I would like to use a picture from the post, with links back to your site/this post. I would promote it on my all my social media platforms and would share the link with you so that you could do the same if you wish. If you are not interested, I understand, I will not use your post/images without your permission.
Thank you for your time.
Absolutely – thanks for including me!
I want to make all popcorn how do I increase the recipe by 50%?
How important is the baking soda? I forgot all about it util id already mixed it with the popcorn and put it in the oven.
Why do you bake it? What changes happen versus just pouring the caramel over the popcorn?
Hi Liz,
Baking the mixture helps to set the caramel and gets it nice and crispy crunchy once it’s cooled, instead of being chewy or gummy. :)
I send my grandkids a Christmas goodie box each year and I can’t wait to send this! I am a moosemunch lover myself and I know they will love it! My one question is, if I put it in a ziplock bag to send how long will it stay fresh? It probably won’t last that long lol but I am considering the # of shipping days…
Just make it the night before you send it out and it should be fine! Pack it in an airtight container and that will keep it crunchy. :-)
Thanks! Can do! I can’t wait to make this!
I’ve recently almost lit my kitchen on fire while making kettle corn…which was delicious…but I’ve been dreaming about bigger and better (with no fires), and caramel corn has edged into the corner of my mind…think I could make a home made simple syrup instead of corn syrup? I live in China right now, and I don’t know if you can get that for cooking purposes here…
Hi Christine! Hmm… I’m not sure about using a simple syrup, but I have heard of using a dash of lemon juice or cream of tartar in place of the corn syrup in caramel recipes. I haven’t tried it myself, though, so I don’t know how that would affect the outcome of this particular recipe. Let me know if you try it! :-)