Good Desserts to Make At Home | Zebra Caramel Popcorn

This post is all about one of my favorite recipes of good desserts to make at home, Zebra Caramel Popcorn.

It can be hard to find good desserts to make at home, but this recipe is a great one to try for a good movie night with family or friends.

This Zebra Caramel Popcorn doesn’t require a ton of expertise and you won’t have to leave the house for a delicious after-dinner dessert. Make it as a surprise for everyone in the household or make it a group activity where everyone can get involved and have a sweet treat and a good time!

My whole family, especially my mom and I and have a big sweet tooth and love snackable desserts like this caramel popcorn. Personally, I have tasted about 15 or more different types of caramel popcorns and this has been one of the easiest and tastiest ways I have found to make a replica of my favorite zebra caramel popcorn.

If you don’t trust me, try it for yourself and leave me a comment and how it turned out. You can tell ME if you think this should be on the list of good desserts to make at home!

To begin, you want to gather all of the necessary ingredients.

That being; popcorn kernels, butter, brown sugar, honey, vanilla extract, salt, baking soda, chocolate and white chocolate, and oil.

One reason I consider these to be good desserts to make at home is because most of these ingredients you would have in your cabinet. Measure out everything first so you can easily follow the pace of the recipe as we continue.

I do want to mention the difference between my zebra caramel popcorn recipes and many others I have tried, which is the use of honey instead of corn syrup. This is a great alternative for those who want something more natural, although that doesn’t neglect the fact that honey does contain the same if not more sugar/fructose per teaspoon as high fructose corn syrup. I enjoyed the difference in flavor given to the caramel popcorn with honey than with corn syrup. 

The first part of this recipe is to prepare the popcorn. Now to make this step even easier you could choose a microwave popcorn brand that you like for the base of this caramel popcorn. If so, microwave and pour into a bowl like the picture shows above.

Now, I feel like good desserts to make at home include a fun factor, which for this recipe is definitely popping the popcorn. Turn the stove on medium-high heat and pour in your oil along with 2 kernels of popcorn, covering with a lid.

As soon as those two kernels pop, turn off the heat and remove from the eye. Take out both kernels and pour the rest of the un-popped kernels into the pot and shake around a bit to get them all coated. After about 15-20 seconds you will want to put the pot back on the stove and turn the heat on medium again with the lid on top. 

You can always double or triple the recipe based on how many people you are serving, especially since this zebra caramel popcorn is an easy desserts recipe for a crowd.

The kernels will start popping soon and you want to shake the pot every 10 seconds to make sure nothing burns. As the popping slows, turn off the heat and let the rest of the kernels pop. Pour the popped popcorn into a separate bowl and set aside while you get ready to make the caramel.

Cooking the caramel for this zebra caramel popcorn recipe had to be one of my favorite parts!

You will take a smaller pot and put it on the stove on medium heat. To start, add the butter and let it melt completely. Good desserts to make at home like these, make you crave the dessert through every step and the wonderful smell of this part specifically had me wanting shovel the homemade caramel down my throat.

Remembering how hot it was, I know that probably sounds painful, but you will understand once you take a whiff of the scent.

Anyways, after the butter melts, add in the honey and brown sugar next. At this point you will want to constantly stir the mix until it starts to boil. You will notice the ingredients look separated, but don’t worry. They will fully incorporate once the caramel begins to boil. After it reaches a boil, let it sit on medium-low heat and boil untouched for 5 minutes.

As you wait, prep a baking dish to pour your caramel coated popcorn into after you mix the two together and preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. 

The caramel should look like the picture above on the right once the 5 minutes is up. As soon as you take it off the heat throw in the salt, baking soda, and vanilla extract and mix together.

I like to add this at the end instead of with the brown sugar and honey because it made the sweet and salty balance of the caramel more prevalent, than if I were to let it cook out by having it boil down earlier.

Spread the caramel over the popcorn as evenly as possible, then take a large spoon and mix it together in the mixing bowl. Keep stirring around until every piece of popcorn is coated with some caramel mix.

At this point you will see the your masterpiece start coming together. I think good desserts to make at home should involve some self-satisfaction and confidence in your dessert making skills as the recipe goes on.

Pour this into the baking dish you set aside earlier and spread evenly with a spoon. The popcorn will initially look lighter than what you see in the store bought kind, but that will soon change as you bake this in the preheated oven.

When you put your caramel popcorn into the oven, set a timer for every 15 minutes for an hour. You will stir the popcorn every time the timer goes off.

While you wait, you can melt your white and milk chocolate and prepare to drizzle them on top of the popcorn.

If you are planning for people to come over so you can share this recipe, make it closer to their arrival so by the time its finished the wonderful caramel popcorn smell will be lingering in the house.

Here are some of my other dessert recipes that you can browse while you wait for this to bake in the oven:

• Banana Nut Muffins
• Pink Lemonade Cookies
• 3 Ingredient Mango Raspberry Sorbet
• Butterscotch Sea Salt Brownies

As you continue to stir your popcorn, every 15 minutes you will notice the popcorn become a golden brown like the picture above, similar to that of our classic favorite store bough caramel popcorn brands.

After an hour has passed remove the caramel popcorn from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

This is what you’re caramel popcorn should look like after you’ve let it cool and broken the pieces apart; shiny and golden brown.

Serve just like this or set aside half and half to have a variety of both regular caramel popcorn and zebra caramel popcorn. This makes it to the top of my list of easy desserts for a crowd because of its versatility, so you can accommodate everyone’s likes!

To drizzle, I chose to use a plastic bag or piping bag and cut the tip for the easiest and most efficient coverage. If you do not have that feel free to drizzle the chocolate over the caramel popcorn with just a spoon.

Once that is done I threw this in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes so the chocolate could harden and I could break everything apart again.

Voila! You have your zebra caramel popcorn ready to serve to anticipating guests, share with the family or pack into snack size bags for quick nighttime desserts throughout the week.

This post was all about good desserts to make at home like this delicious Zebra Caramel Popcorn.

Don’t forget to save these other good desserts to make at home recipes below for future reference:

• 5-Ingredient Fried Chocolate and Caramel Banana Bites
• Banana Nut Muffins
• Pink Lemonade Cookies
• 3-Ingredient Mango Raspberry Sorbet
• Butterscotch Sea Salt Brownies