Simple Toffee Popcorn Recipe (2024)

FAQs

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

Toffee has tiny sugar crystals making it crunchy and easy to break. It is the reason toffee adds that cracking sound when coated on desserts or snacks like popcorn. Conversely, caramel has large crystals making it chewy and soft.

Try sprinkling with some grated Parmesan cheese, smoked paprika, nutritional yeast, cayenne powder, taco seasoning, or even curry powder to give a fun and interesting new flavor to traditional buttered popcorn. You can even make popcorn into delicious clusters or caramel corn.

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.

Toffee vs Caramel

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.

Simply put, toffee is an overcooked butterscotch — easy to break and with little to no elasticity. Webstaurant Store calls toffee a "hard-crack" candy, which must be heated to a temperature between 295 and 304 degrees F. This allows even more water to evaporate from the mix, increasing the sugar content to 99%.

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.

Try microwaving a glass of water first to help create a humid environment for your kernels. This will help the kernels remain tender, rather than tough. Then let your microwave work its magic, but make sure not to leave your microwave unattended when popping!

There isn't enough moisture in unpopped kernels to create the pressure, so they fail to burst and open. To make your popcorn pop better, try soaking the kernels in a bowl of water for 10 minutes and then draining them. Then, pop the kernels as usual.

Toppings and Secret Ingredients

Other theaters cook their kernels in a mix of oil and real butter, helping to maximize that butter flavor and fine salt taste before the actual popcorn kernels are popped. However, many don't know that the main reason for the taste of that movie popcorn is a topping called Flavacol.

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.

What popcorn seasoning do movie theaters use? ›

2045 Flavacol popcorn salt.

The secret is to pop it in coconut oil and add Flavacol. Flavacol is a flavored salt that theaters use when popping the popcorn. You can buy Flavacol on Amazon.

To make air fryer popcorn, simply add 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels to the air fryer basket with aluminum foil. Make sure that the kernels are spread out in a single layer to ensure even popping. Close the air fryer basket and set the temperature to 400°F. After about 3 minutes, you'll start to hear the kernels pop.

In fact, movie theaters use a combination of ingredients you would probably never have in your pantry to create the addictive flavor of their popcorn. The main ingredient used is called Flavacol (via Extra Kripsy). Flavacol is a fine salt that gives movie theater popcorn its yellow color.

Caramel corn or caramel popcorn (toffee popcorn in the UK) is a confection made of popcorn coated with a sugar or molasses based caramel candy shell that is normally less than 1mm thick. Typically a sugar solution or syrup is made and heated until it browns and becomes thick, producing a caramelized candy syrup.

Using our secret recipe, our generously covered Toffee popcorn is a taste sensation, a perfect sweet treat to share. Glucose Syrup, Sugar, Popped Maize, Salted Butter (MILK), Rapeseed Oil, Salt, Cane Molasses, Partially Inverted Sugar Syrup, Single Cream (MILK), Emulsifier: Lecithins.

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.

Toffee offers a rich, indulgent taste experience, characterised by a deep, caramelised sweetness and a buttery richness. The primary flavour profile of toffee is a blend of sweet and slightly burnt sugar, which comes from the caramelisation process during cooking.