x
  • Home
  • Recipes
  • Press
  • About
  • Let’s talk!
Instagram Pinterest BlogLovin
Home › recipes › cookies › Caramel Popcorn Cookies (from Pastry Love by Joanne Chang)

FacebookTweetPin

  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • Pinterest
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Constellation Inspiration

Constellation Inspiration

A Dessert Blog

  • Cookbook
  • Tutorials
  • About
    • Press
  • Contact
  • Recipes:
  • Asian-inspired
  • cake
  • cookies
  • cream puffs
  • tarts
  • bars
  • candy
  • seasonal
    • Valentines
    • halloween
    • christmas
Jump to Recipe
cookies

Caramel Popcorn Cookies (from Pastry Love by Joanne Chang)

by: Amy on: Nov 28, 2019

My favourite season of the year is cookbook season. It falls somewhere between Fall and Winter and it is the time when many highly-anticipated cookbooks are released. I had barely finished flipping through Michelle’s new book when my copy...

Review  or  Print Recipe

My favourite season of the year is cookbook season. It falls somewhere between Fall and Winter and it is the time when many highly-anticipated cookbooks are released. I had barely finished flipping through Michelle’s new book when my copy of Pastry Love by Joanne Chang arrived in my mailbox. I own and love Joanne’s other cookbooks so I knew Pastry Love would be another great one to add to the collection. In case you are not familiar with Joanne, she is known more formally as the owner of Flour Bakery and James Beard Foundation Award winner for Outstanding Baker, and less formally as the queen of sticky buns. What makes this book so special is that it features recipes for many things she could not serve in the setting of a bakery, but still delicious recipes nonetheless.

When flipping through this book that is divided into chapters like ‘I Knead Bread,’ ‘Easy as Pie,’ ‘Time to Show Off,’ and ‘I Made This for You,’ I gravitated towards a recipe that is simpler but just as eye-catching as the rest. Jessi’s Caramel Popcorn Cookie recipe in the ‘Afternoon Pick-Me-Up’ chapter produces a cookie is equally crispy, chewy, sweet, salty, and everything you would ever want in a cookie. The amount of caramel popcorn you add to this cookie dough is a-l-a-r-m-i-n-g. It calls for six full cups of popcorn and I thought I misread the recipe and that my mixer would spew it all back out at me. When it was time to add the caramel corn, I had the mixer on the lowest setting possible (this is key!) and added the six cups, one cup at a time. My cookie dough with popcorn looked more like popcorn with a side of cookie dough but they turned out so perfectly. The edges are crispy, the centres are chewy, and the caramel popcorn studded throughout the cookie adds such great texture and flavour to the cookie. A generous amount of flakey sea salt tops this cookie, just as it should any cookie. I made the lemon sugar cookies with lemon glaze shortly after these popcorn cookies came out of the oven and I have the Japanese cotton cheesecake bookmarked as my next recipe to try.

Happy baking!

Jessi’s Caramel Popcorn Cookies

Makes 24 cookies
By Amy

Ingredients

  • 1 1/3 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 14 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 large egg, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • I teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 6 cups caramel popcorn, homemade or store-bought
  • Flakey salt, to sprinkle

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F and place racks in the centre and bottom third of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.
  • In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the brown sugar and butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add the egg and vanilla. Beat until combined.
  • In a separate medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until just barely combined. Add the popcorn and mix on low until the popcorn is fully incorporated. (At this point the batter can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.)
  • Drop large rounded spoonfuls of the batter onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about I inch between them. Sprinkle the cookies evenly with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets and switching their positions midway through the baking time, until the edges are golden brown and the centres are set. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack.
  • The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Notes

From Pastry Love by Joanne Chang

Congratulations on the new book, Joanne!

more like this:

My Favourite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Marbelous Cookie (aka. Triple Chocolate Cookie)

Matcha Neapolitan Sugar Cookies

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Sweet Comments:

  1. Pam Oladko says

    Dec 6, 2022 at 7:23 pm

    These cookies are off the chain good. Will be a hit wherever I bring them.

    Reply

Primary Sidebar

a sweet hello.

Welcome to Constellation Inspiration, a buttercream-coated journal of recipes, stories, and love letters that are sweet to read, and even sweeter to eat. These love letters are dedicated to you.

sneak peaks & bonus recipes!

Sign up to get them for free:

featured

day two: sparkly matcha neapolitan shortbread cook day two: sparkly matcha neapolitan shortbread cookies ✨

the instructions might seem confusing, but if you watch the video to see how the different flavour layers are stacked, it will make much more sense! these slice and bake cookies freeze extremely well so you can make the dough now and bake them off when you want to gift them. (makes 40-44)

vanilla dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

matcha dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tsp culinary matcha powder
1/4 tsp salt

strawberry dough 
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g 6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry powder 
1/4 tsp salt

1 egg white
coarse sanding sugar

for the vanilla dough, combine butter and powdered sugar in a bowl. mix until smooth. add vanilla. add flour and salt and mix until no dry streaks remain. do the same for the matcha and strawberry doughs in separate bowls

place one portion of the dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll into a 5 x 9-inch rectangle that is about 1/4-inch thick. slide rolled out dough onto a baking sheet and freeze for 10 min until firm. repeat this step with the other portions of dough

remove the top piece of parchment from each slab and stack the strawberry, vanilla, and matcha dough layers. cut the slab down the middle the long way to form two 2.5 x 9-inch rectangles. with one half, carefully swap the order of the layers (example: if the first half of the dough is stacked svm, swap the second half so it’s msv. this will ensure that same flavour squares don’t stack on each other). stack the halves. press the layers gently to adhere them. return the stacked dough to the freezer for another 10min

[recipe cont’d in comments]

#christmasbaking #christmascookies #holidaybaking #holidaycookies #cookiedecorating
day 1: rudolph rings 🦌✨ piped butter cookies day 1: rudolph rings 🦌✨

piped butter cookies are some of my fav cookies to make — they’re buttery! sandy! rich! they get a little holiday makeover and become the cutest rudolph rings when you add a little red m&m nose and antler details. topping the antlers with gold is optional, but adds extra sparkle and festive cheer to each cookie

(makes 12 cookies)
135 g salted butter, very soft
45 g icing sugar
100 g flour
40 g cornstarch
15 g cocoa powder 
1/4 tsp espresso powder 

in a medium bowl, combine softened salted butter with icing sugar with a rubber spatula until smooth

in a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and salt

using a rubber spatula, fold in the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture until no more dry spots remain

transfer the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip (i used wilton 6b)

apply pressure to pipe the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. if you are having trouble piping out the dough, you can warm up the dough in the piping bag between the palms of your hands, or add an extra 1 tbsp of melted butter to the dough and refill the piping bag. leave 1 inch between each cookie

transfer the sheet of piped cookies to the freezer while you preheat the oven to 325f. chilling the dough will prevent the cookies from spreading in the oven

bake the cookies until the bottoms are set, about 25 – 30 minutes

allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely and decorate

royal icing
1 egg white
150 g icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

in the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, beat egg whites on medium-low speed until frothy, about 1 min. with the mixer on low speed, slowly add icing sugar and vanilla. once incorporated, increase speed to medium-high and beat until stiff peaks form. transfer icing to a pip bag with a small round tip to pipe out face details

#holidaybaking #christmascookies #christmascookie #holidaycookies #christmasbaking
sorry i cant come to the phone right now, i’m to sorry i cant come to the phone right now, i’m too busy baking all the @nytcooking holiday cookies the day they’re released

@csaffitz bûche de noël cookies
@samanthaseneviratne ginger cheesecake cookies
@heysueli matcha-black sesame shortbreads
@ericjoonho lemon-turmeric crinkle cookies
@clarkbar iced peppermint cookies
@sohlae holiday rocky road
@vaughn rum-buttered almond cookies

#nytcooking #nytcookieweek #nytcookies #holidaybaking #christmascookies
presenting: this year’s 12 days of christmas coo presenting: this year’s 12 days of christmas cookies 🎄

matcha christmas tree cookies 
chocolate reindeer cookies
matcha strawberry neapolitan checkerboard
hojicha walnut deer cookies (with a bow!)
hedgehog hazelnut praline shortbread
pretzel shortbread mittens
earl grey decorated wreath cookies 
snowman cookie butter truffles
grinchy pistachio jammy liners
eggnog brûlée cookies
biscoff snowman cookies
chestnut hazelnut praline sandwich cookies

…dropping tomorrow! stay tuned!

#christmasbaking #christmascookies #holidaybaking #holidaycookies #cookiedecorating
preparing for the big weekend… ✨ a tradition preparing for the big weekend… ✨

a tradition that i started in 2019, this will be the sixth year i bake all of the @nytcooking holiday cookies the moment they are released on dec 1. i’m excited/nervous for sunday (i might throw up). here are the cookies from previous years, and a few behind the scenes where you can witness me slowly lose my sanity.

2019: twelve cookies by @susanspungen
peppermint stripe cookies
color-field cookies
peanut shortbread with honeycomb
gingery brownie crinkle cookies
marbled tahini cookies
homemade pocky
abstract art cookies
stamped citrus shortbread
brown sugar-anise cookies
thumbprints with dulce de leche
blood orange poppyseed window cookies
dirty chai earthquake cookies

2020:
cornmeal lime shortbread fans
sparkly gingerbread
vanilla bean spritz cookies
toasted almond snowballs
honey-roasted peanut thumbprints
black and white brownies 
fudgy bourbon balls
cherry rugelach with cardamom sugar

2021: the year that @nytcooking released 24 holiday cookie recipes and i almost passed out/away
m&m cookies
almond spritz cookies
peppermint brownie cookies
brown-butter toffee sandwich cookies
hibiscus-spiraled ginger cookies
guava and cream cheese twists
minty lime bars
chewy gingerbread
savory mixed-nut shortbread
tahini thumbprints with dulce de leche
chocolate babka rugelach
fruity meltaways
iced oatmeal cookies
spiced orange crumble cookies
peanut butter cookies
gingerbread biscotti
cheddar cheese coins
fig and cherry cookie pies
italian rainbow cookies
chocolate-cherry ginger cookies
hindbaersnitter
no-bake chocolate clusters
torticas de morón
piparkakut

2022:
white chocolate macadamia nut cookies
gochujang caramel cookies
chocolate hazelnut cookies
gingerbread latte cookies
orange, pistachio and chocolate shortbread
crunchy coconut twists
savory shortbread with olives and rosemary

2023: last year’s seven cookies which was done after ten hours of baking
gingerbread blondies
mexican hot chocolate cookies
rainbow rave cookies
lemon butter curls
matcha latte cookies
technicolor cookies
neapolitan checkerboard

#nytcooking #nytcookies #nytcookieweek #christmascookies #holidaycookies

Footer

Recipe Index
About
Press
Contact
Legal

sneak peeks & bonus recipes!

Sign up to get them for free:

© 2025 Constellation Inspiration · Site by Meyne