Sugar and Spice Popcorn with Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Ginger

This recipe for Sugar and Spice Popcorn with Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Ginger is so easy; no messy coatings or oven baking required. Simply combine butter, sugar, and spices and add to your popcorn. DELICIOUS!

It’s that time of year. Pumpkin Spice time. Actually it starts in August when all of food bloggerland seems obsessed with all things Pumpkin Spiced! But there is some confusion. Without pumpkins to be found anywhere in sight that name can be misleading to many.

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

What we are really seeing are a plethora of dishes and baked goods using a seasoning more correctly called Pumpkin Pie Spice and those same spices are key to this delicious Sugar and Spice Popcorn.

Want to save this recipe?

Enter your email & I’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!

Pumpkin Pie Spice consists of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves; you know the ones that are always put into a Thanksgiving holiday pie? There really is no need to buy a separate spice labeled as such when it’s just a combination of spices you probably already have in your cabinet.

I’ve seen a million different recipes for Pumpkin Pie Spice and it’s clear there is nothing uniform; but next time instead of buying a mix done for you, take a peek a what I’ve included in the Recipe Notes. I don’t want cloves in the mix for this popcorn, but I do love including them when I’m baking.

Of course the ubiquitous Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks may have started this whole ‘Pumpkin Spice’ thing and until 2014 it was true to form. No pumpkin. Nope, not a drop.

I hear they’ve changed that and quite frankly I can’t imagine coffee with pumpkin in it…so I won’t be standing in line for one which is easy for me; the only one I’ll stand in line for comes out a bit later and has eggnog in it!!

So let’s get back to this popcorn. First, I love popcorn. I even love movie popcorn with that awful butter. I love caramel corn and popcorn drizzled with white and dark chocolate. I even made popcorn once with a bourbon caramel drizzle.

But the truth is that even though some of those sinful creations are FANTASTIC, the real nitty-gritty is that I just don’t often take the time to make coatings that need a lot of monitoring or expensive thermometer gadgets to help me accomplish the task.

For me method does matter and while I have most often used a large pan for my popcorn (or sure, have done it in the microwave), my daughter Emily shared this Popcorn Popper with me and there has been no going back. It might be considered a gadget but after borrowing hers I hoped she would forget that I had it. She did not. So I had to buy one for myself. 🙂

It makes it so easy; much lighter weight than a big pot and with a wooden handle that does not get hot, you might think it was made just for popping popcorn. It was!

I love this simple recipe so much that when I do make popcorn I’m happy with just a big bowl of this next to me. The original recipe is from an old cookbook of mine, “Colorado Cache” from the Junior League of Denver; the first cookbook I bought when I moved to Colorado over 30 years ago! They called it Sugar and Spice Popcorn and it’s all about spices we associate with pumpkin pie.

I don’t want to disappoint someone looking for a hot spice like cayenne (which is good but certainly different!). And I can promise that NO PUMPKIN WAS SMUSHED for these kernels!

I first published this post for Sugar and Spice Popcorn with Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Ginger over ten years ago but forgot I had already put it on the blog. I made some last week when I was DYING (OK, so I had twisted my ankle and was laid up but you know some exaggeration is in order right?) and feeling too punk to do much of anything but Netflix and Acorn TV (my new favorite channel with all things British!) and I realized I had to share. Or in this case share again!

Although popcorn that is not coated with a hardened sugary confection is more often mixed with savory ingredients, this combination of butter with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger is so good and so easy; our entire family has been hooked for over two decades and I see no decline in our love happening anytime soon.

It’s easy too; no time spent making either a syrupy mess or baking it in the oven; just mix the butter, sugar and spices and pour the mixture over the popcorn, mix a bit with a large spoon (or your hands) and go.

Always our go to; this recipe is perfect all year long so let’s pass the napkins (lots of them) and start snacking. I’m betting you’ll find it addictive too!

PIN IT! ‘Sugar and Spice Popcorn with Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Ginger’