Moose Munch Popcorn Favorite Family Recipes

This Moose Munch Popcorn is the perfect game night snack, movie treat or holiday gift. Our homemade version tastes just like the famous Harry & David’s Moose Munch Popcorn with its perfectly salty sweet combination of caramel-coated popcorn, nuts and chocolate. Make a giant batch of this premium popcorn and watch it disappear within minutes. It’s crunchy, sweet, and really easy to make.

Ingredients in Moose Munch Popcorn

This delicious twist on classic caramel popcorn is easy to make with very simple ingredients, yet the end result is a a gourmet sweet and savory treat that everyone will be talking about! Here’s all you need for our homemade moose munch recipe:

Popped popcorn – for this recipe, use about 20 cups popped corn or 2 bags unbuttered microwave popcorn, with kernels removed. We really like the Orville Redenbacher’s Naturals Simply Salted popcorn. Whole cashews – about half a cup, lightly salted cashews. You can also choose unsalted if you want to control how salty the treat turns out. Whole almonds – half a cup of lightly salted whole almonds. Again you can chooses the unsalted variety. Peanuts – half a cup, lightly salted Butter – three quarters of a cup, or one and a half sticks unsalted butter. Light brown sugar – one and a half cups. If you want a darker caramel and deeper flavor you can use dark brown sugar. Light corn syrup – half a cup Karo or other light corn syrup brand. This gives the caramel sauce a lot of sweetness without a ton of extra sugar. Baking soda – half a teaspoon. It’ll activate in the corn syrup and brown sugar mixture and create an absolutely decadent homemade creamy caramel. Salt – half teaspoon kosher or table salt. Chocolate chips – One cup Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips. You can use white chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate chips or dark chocolate as well. The hint of chocolate adds an extra layer of decadence to this treat.

Steps to Buttery Caramel Moose Munch Popcorn

If you’ve never worked with caramel corn before, it can seem a bit daunting. But following these simple steps will give you perfect results every time!

Why is it Called “Moose Munch”?

Moose Munch popcorn was originally created by Harry & David, a Pacific Northwest-based company known for gourmet treats, gifts and best-selling fruit baskets. The company wanted to expand beyond fruit, and in the early 1990s caramel gourmet popcorn was all the rage. So they experimented with different flavors and ingredients, and the classic Moose Munch was born. It was initially only offered during the holiday season, but the popcorn recipe was so popular they made it available year-round. It’s called “Moose Munch” because the creators wanted to make a snack so yummy that “even the moose would want to munch on it.”

Gifting Moose Munch for the Holidays

Our family has been making this Moose Munch recipe for a long time and we love to share it with friends as holiday gifts. Make multiple batches and find creative ways to package it. A simple cellophane bag with a ribbon tied around, a decorative box or tin is always a cute way to distribute this tasty popcorn.

Variations on this Moose Munch Recipe

This recipe is versatile enough so you can change it up as much as you like, depending on tastes, holidays, textures, etc. Here are some ideas for variations:

For holidays and different seasons, you can turn this popcorn into a seasonal recipe by adding pumpkin spice, mini marshmallows or candy corn for Halloween and autumn, peppermint chocolate bark and candy cane pieces for Christmas or wintertime, or lighter, fruitier flavors for Easter and spring or summer. Add dried chopped up fruit pieces like chopped cherries, cranberries, mangoes or apples into the mix. Not a fan of almonds? Leave them out! Like walnuts? Toss some in! That’s the beauty of this recipe; you can switch up ingredients to fit your needs. Add extra flavor with a dash of cinnamon, nutmeg or even cayenne pepper into the caramel or the chocolate drizzle. Make the popcorn more savory by adding in grated parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning or other spices.