
Many years ago I tried making caramel popcorn and it turned out awful. I don't remember what I did wrong, but the popcorn turned out small and the caramel looked really bad—it was clear. Today I wanted to try again because I really like sweet popcorn, but I have to admit it was pretty difficult—at least for me, getting the final result was quite a challenge. I had to make the caramel twice because the first batch burned completely.

First, I made the popcorn by putting oil in a pot and adding the corn until it popped. Let’s just say there’s not much to it when it comes to making popcorn. Once it was ready, I transferred it to another pot, but I forgot to take pictures of it, haha. Then I started preparing the ingredients for the caramel. I remember the first time I made it, I used water and sugar, and it turned out terrible. This time, I looked up several recipes online, and they all used butter and sugar. Some people add milk, but I didn’t add any because I didn’t really understand what the milk was for.

In the same pot where I made the popcorn, I added two tablespoons of butter and half a cup of sugar. I started stirring it over medium heat until it melted, and it went through a long process until it began to turn a little golden. at which point I added a drop of vinegar (supposedly to make the caramel turn out much better), and it really did form a very nice caramel, but it was getting too dark. Even though I took it off the heat, it kept burning; it turned completely black, and I had to throw it away—it made me so angry.

I left the pot soaking in water, hoping to loosen that burnt caramel soon. I tried again, but this time using a skillet and adding the butter and sugar once more. This time I used low heat; the process took much longer. My back was starting to hurt from standing there waiting for the caramel to form. I got to a point where I almost gave up because the mixture had dried out completely and looked like beach sand, but after quite a while, it started to melt. I added that drop of vinegar again, and it turned out pretty well. I took it off the heat before it burned, and since this was my first time successfully making caramel popcorn, I didn’t know how to spread the caramel evenly, so some pieces ended up with no caramel at all, hahaha, but the few that did have it were absolutely delicious.


To be honest, I'd rather buy them than make them; I feel like working with caramel is pretty tricky, plus I've burned my hands about five times.

