My friend, Michelle, shared this recipe with me a couple Christmases ago. She refers to it as “Christmas Crack” due to it’s addictive qualities. But since I think of this when I hear “Christmas Crack”, I am going to refer to this super easy and delicious holiday snack as Peppermint Popcorn.
Even though this recipe is only 3-4 ingredients and can be pulled together in a pinch, it is so so good! But how can popcorn covered in white chocolate and candy canes be bad?
I started this recipe by getting out all of my frustration on a bunch of innocent candy canes. I placed the unwrapped candy canes in a plastic bag and whacked them to smithereens with a meat mallet until they were candy cane dust.
Then, popped the popcorn. I prefer using an air popper most of the time. Not only is it a bit healthier, but for me it’s a bit more fool proof. I haven’t quite mastered the art of popping popcorn on the store without burning more than a few pieces.
And while the popcorn was popping, I placed the white chocolate chips in the microwave to melt. I also stirred in some peppermint extract for even more peppermint flavor.
Once the popcorn was popped, I drizzled on the white chocolate and gave the popcorn a good toss so that each piece was nice and coated in chocolate. Next, I sprinkled on the candy canes, and tossed again. I also like to toss in a little bit of salt, for that sweet, salty flavor.
Once the popcorn was covered in chocolate and candy canes, I dumpped it out on a piece of parchment to dry. After about 10 minutes, it is ready be packed into bags to hand out to friends, or you can just eat it yourself. I probably ate about half of this myself before I remembered that I made this for other people (I have no self control!).
Michelle loves to set this out at parties for her friends to munch on. I have made this for work functions in the past as a nice alternative to Christmas candy. It still satisfies any sweet tooth, but it’s not quite as heavy as a piece of fudge or a cookie.
But that’s also what makes this popcorn so sneaky addicting. Because it’s lighter, you can eat a lot of it before realizing “holy crap, I just ate an entire bowl of this stuff!”. But it’s also delicious, so you don’t really care.
Can you tell I am speaking from personal experience? That’s pretty much what happened to me when I was packing up little gift bags of this stuff for friends. I ate an entire small popcorn bowl of this stuff.
I guess I will just have to make another batch. Aw shucks. 😉
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