Butterbeer Popcorn Recipe

This easy butterbeer popcorn makes the perfect movie night snack for a Harry Potter movie night or marathon! Make a batch in minutes with just a few simple ingredients that has a ton of magical flavor!

Ever since my son and I read all of the Harry Potter books together before our trip to Universal Studios, I’ve been a little bit obsessed with recreating foods from the series.

I started with some homemade butterbeer of course and now it’s time for the ultimate movie night snack – butterbeer popcorn! It has all of the flavors of butterbeer but mixed in with a delicious buttery popcorn!

It’d be perfect for snack on after a little round of Harry Potter trivia or to have as a fun surprise at the end of this Harry Potter scavenger hunt!

And don’t worry, that’s not all the Harry Potter food – I’ve got pumpkin pasties coming soon! And these cauldron cupcakes could almost pass for cauldron cakes!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Easy – there’s not a lot to this recipe. If you can melt things in the microwave and cook things on the stove, you can make this!
• Flavorful – this popcorn has so much flavor between the double extracts, the butterscotch chips, and well the buttered popcorn!
• Fun – there’s nothing more fun than a themed recipe, especially one themed after a series so magical as Harry Potter! I can imagine that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would love snacking on this in the common room!

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

• Butterscotch extract – I had a hard time finding this (but finally ordered this one from Amazon), so if you can’t find it you can always use vanilla or maple extract in place of the butterscotch.
• Butter extract – I bought this to make my Kentucky butter cake and have been amazed how much I’ve used it. I couldn’t find it in my regular grocery store but you can get it on Amazon here.
• Microwave popcorn – any popcorn works, but I prefer buttered popcorn just to add a little more moistness to the popcorn!
• Mini dehydrated marshmallows – I used these mini dehydrated marshmallows (leftover from my s’mores cookies) but if you can’t find those or don’t want to order them, you can use regular mini marshmallows, or just omit the marshmallows altogether.
• Sprinkles – I added these gold sphere sprinkles for a fun pop of color to go along with the butterscotch coloring, but you can omit these completely or even do Harry Potter sprinkles like these ones!
• White chocolate chips – I always recommend high-quality chocolate chips but especially with white chocolate! It just doesn’t melt quite as nicely as regular chocolate.

How to Make Butterbeer Popcorn

Okay so this process is actually pretty easy but there are some tips and tricks that I want to make sure you know so I’m going to walk you through how to make this popcorn step by step!

Start by popping your popcorn in the microwave. When it’s done, try your best to remove any of the unpopped kernels so they don’t end up in this yummy treat.

Then pour the popcorn onto a baking sheet lined with a piece of parchment paper or non-stick silicone mat. Shake the baking sheet around a bit so you can spread it out into one even layer.

Add the butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup into a small saucepan and heat it up until it comes to a boil.

Boil for 2-3 minutes (but don’t forget it and let it boil too long) then remove from the heat.

Immediately add the extracts, butterscotch chips, baking soda, and sea salt to the mixture. Whisk it all together until it’s nice and smooth.

Drizzle the butterscotch mixture over the cookie sheet of popcorn then use either your hands or a spatula to coat all of the popcorn as much as possible.

Let the mixture set for about five minutes before moving onto the next step.

Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave for 20 second increments, stirring after each increment until the white chocolate is nice and smooth.

Drizzle the white chocolate over the butterbeer popcorn, drizzling it all over so every bite will have the butterscotch mixture and the white chocolate.

Sprinkle the mini marshmallows and sprinkles over top of the white chocolate while it’s still warm (if using) and let it set for a few minutes.

Scoop into your bowls or popcorn containers and serve! It’s a little bit messy but oh so delicious!

Expert Tips

Store leftover popcorn in an airtight container (actually airtight, don’t just cover it with foil or it’ll get soggy) for up to two days, but is really is best eaten right away.

Don’t let the butterscotch mixture boil too long or you’ll end up with a mixture that’s more like a thick toffee sauce than the pourable butterscotch mixture you’re looking for.

Recipe FAQs

More Easy Harry Potter Movie Night Ideas

If you want more fun things to do on your Harry Potter movie night, try out one of these fun ideas!

• Harry Potter party games – the best games to play if you’re a Harry Potter fan!
• Harry Potter coloring page – tons of free printable Harry Potter coloring pages that include all of your favorite wizards!
• Harry Potter charades – tons of words inspired by Harry Potter that are perfect for a rousing game of charades!
• Harry Potter would you rather – the best set of Harry Potter would you rather questions for all ages!
• Harry Potter danger words – a super fun word game that uses Harry Potter themed words!