Update 3/2/20: Do you love this recipe? Don't miss the new recipe I just posted for Milk Chocolate S'mores Moose Munch Copycat!
Ever wondered how to make Moose Munch?
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 just wanting to learn 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 Moose Munch recipe, 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 ½ 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 homemade Moose Munch, you'll have a bit extra to salt and flavor however you like!
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Dark Chocolate Caramel Popcorn (Moose Munch Copycat)
- Total Time: 5 hours 15 mins
- Yield: 8-10 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 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 (see notes)
- 1.5 tsp shortening
Instructions
- 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. (see notes for increasing caramel!)
- Continue boiling for 2 minutes.
- Remove pan from heat and stir in baking soda. Allow to cool for a few minutes until the mixture is no longer hot, but just warm (don't let it get too cool or it will start getting hard!)
- 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 using a large non-stick spatula, 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. Store leftovers in an airtight container in a cool place.
Notes
* If you want a more total covering of caramel, increase the caramel ingredients (brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, and baking soda) by 50%
* Because authentic Moose Munch is also available in milk chocolate varieties, you can experiment with different kinds of chocolate chips here!
- Prep Time: 4 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour 15 mins
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 up this chocolate caramel popcorn in cellophane bags for Christmas gifts this year, and we still had some leftover!
Honestly I have never added any chocolate or nuts to this, but this caramel recipe is outstanding and my go-to whenever I make caramel popcorn. I make two rounds of air-popped pop corn and double the caramel. It’s incredibly addicting and I absolutely love it!
★★★★★
That's awesome, Lauren! Thanks so much for the feedback.
Really good. Somehow, the caramel combination is light. I lined the pan with parchment before putting the popcorn and nuts down. It made cleanup a breeze. Really liked this with 1/3 cashews, 1/3 pecans and 1/3 peanuts. This will be a standard now.
I didn't have corn syrup on hand, and since we're in the middle of a pandemic I didn't think it wise to go to the store for just one item, so I altered the caramel recipe only slightly by using 1 cup of salted butter instead of a combo of corn syrup and butter. As you can imagine, the caramel came out heavenly...with all that butter! I also added sea salt to the popcorn/nut caramel mix after the first 15 minutes of baking.
My husband and I used to love Moose Munch. Now we love this recipe! As with most things, homemade is SOOO MUCH BETTER than the store bought version. My husband says this is the "most decadent and delicious" treat he's had in a long time. WOW. You impressed my husband, and that's hard to do.
Thank you for the awesome recipe! I can't wait to try some more of your tasty treats!
Very nice! Thanks for sharing your experience and I'm so happy it worked out well for you with the changes! There's never such a thing as too much butter, I say!
Erin, Moose Munch uses crispy, crunchy toffy to cover the popcorn, not chewy caramel. There IS a difference! Probably much of the difference is cooking to the hard crack stage instead of the soft crack stage.
Hallie, you could certainly pop a candy thermometer onto the pan to ensure you're reaching hard crack temperature if you want to guarantee a crunchy coating. 🙂
Amazing recipe! Followed directions exactly with the the exception of doubling the caramel. Had no issues with the chocolate drizzle hardening up.
★★★★★
Do you use light or dark brown sugar? It sounds sweet enough but I'm afraid to use dark in fear it may be too sweet! Figured I'd ask first. 🙂 Thank you!
Hey Debra! I used light brown sugar 🙂
I made this last week for our Suoer Bowl Party.
It was a huge hit. This week I was in Williamsburg, VA with friends and at the Prime Outlet Mall there is a Harry and David’s store. I have never tasted their Moose Munch. So I went in the store and bought a small bag to compare this recipe with theirs.
I am so excited to say this is 100 times better. ITheirs had no taste except maybe the taste if the plastic bag it was in. I ended up throwing it away.
Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe. I absolutely love it. It is buttery tasting and oh so good. I did add a little sea salt over the popcorn after I added the melted chocolate while it was still hot.
Thanks so much for a wonderful recipe. I made it again today to take to church as a snack for our annual chicken foot tournament (dominion game).
Thank you so much for sharing this! Adding sea salt sounds sooo delicious and I'm so glad that the recipe has worked so well for you.
Do you use white or yellow kernels in this recipe?
★★★★★
I used yellow 🙂
I want to comment that I did use the shortening but it takes a long time to harden. Used it before th Times I made it. Just leave on the wax paper and the chocolate will get firm. I made it went to town and put away when I got home out 4 hours.
If u want it in a hurry u could leave the shortening out. So delish.
I just wanted to be sure that anyone reading this AWESOME recipe knows to leave the fat out of the chocolate your melting. It won't set but you don't need the fat anyway. Any chocolate will work that can be melted.
★★★★
Made this today. Best caramel popcorn recipe I've found to-date. However, the chocolate did not harden sufficiently, really disappointed. I was skepitcal about chocolate chips, so I only drizzled chocolate over half the batch. I think I would have been better served to use the choclate wafers used in candy making. May try that... the popcorn and nuts without the chocolate is crispy and yummy!
★★★
Thank you for the feedback, Annie! You can certainly use the chocolate melting wafers, especially if they are to be packaged and you're concerned about warmth getting to them. I didn't have a problem using chocolate chips and I use them just because I prefer the flavor over the wafers, but either can be used for sure.
Does the pooped popcorn need to be salted or unsalted?
It's a matter of taste - you can use either one! 🙂
I made personal bags of the treat for nurses and staff at my son's long term care facility. I attached a bendable reindeer from Oriental Trading with a note that says "Merry Christmas to those who are 'deer' to us"
The only problem I had was it sticking to the wax paper. I had to peal off the small pieces that ripped off when lifting. Is parchment paper better? Or should I spray the wax paper with pam prior to putting down the moose munch?
I used the parchment paper, Barbara. Worked really well.
Seriously good! I’vemade it twice for gifts. Recipients love it. I have to keep the circling vultures (kids) away from it long enough to package it up. Will make again! Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe.
★★★★★
I've tried a very similar recipe and the popcorn pretty much disintegrated. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, even though drizzling. I haven't noticed that any recipes say to cool the caramel mixture a little first???
I made as directed Really yummy. Next time, I may increase caramel by 50%.
★★★★★
Correction, I didn't add shortening to chocolate.
★★★★★
Thanks for letting me know your experience!
My family loves watching movies together every Sunday night. So I have been thinking about trying to make us some really good popcorn. I like that this recipe could let me use some pecans in it. I wonder if it is hard to find premade gourmet popcorn. I would love to have a lot of popcorn at our larger family movie nights.
Hi. I made this and it was really tasty. But, the popcorn and nuts really broke up - didn't get the big clusters I was hoping for. Any suggestions?
★★★★
I think that it would work better if made with more caramel. That would help it stick together better. when I saw that the author put a note to up the recipe 50%. That's exactly what I was thinking. Hope that helps.
I made this last year (thanks for the advice on keepung it fresh. A ziplock bag was perfect). Now it is my family's favorite...besides my mom's Christmas Fudge! Easy to make and DELICIOUS!!!
★★★★★
Everyone loved this recipe!! I had to make it twice in 1 day. I didn't use the shortening..I just melted the semi sweet chips in a very dry bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds 3 times. After I drizzled the chocolate over the popcorn, I stuck it in the refrigerator for 5 mins to harden. Worked great. This was a HUGE hit!
★★★★★
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
★★★★★
I believe that chocolate has to be tempered to harden at room temperature. I was actually wondering the same thing. I am going to try chocolate wafers used for filling candy molds. I will let you know how it goes.
I use the same morsels and make turtle cookies and the chocolate hardens up in the fridge in 20 minutes. I don't add any shortening though.
★★★★
I would skip the shortening when melting the chocolate. I frequently make chocolate covered strawberries and use only the melted chocolate and it hardens up well. I once made kind bars, and the recipe called for chocolate melted with 1 teaspoon coconut oil, and that would not set up either. I never had a problem with plain chocolate hardening up though.
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. 🙂
Do you recommend making the popcorn stove top with oil, or can I pop it in an air popper? Thanks
You can pop it any way you like!
Made this today, followed recipe exactly! OMGoodness YUMMYbn thanks so much
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! 🙂