popcorn

Easter Egg Popcorn Balls

March 20, 2017

Did you make popcorn balls as a kid? Sadly my childhood was void of popcorn balls, which is a shame because they are so much fun to make! They are the perfect thing to make with kids, or for kids, because they require just a few basic ingredients and absolutely no baking.

I didn’t even have a popcorn ball until I was an adult. I have a friend that makes them every year for the holidays to hand out for friends and family. I look forward to her popcorn ball delivery every year! But these puffy, sweet popcorn confections shouldn’t be reserved for Christmas. They seemed perfectly suited for Easter, too!

You may already have everything you need to make these popcorn balls in your pantry. All I needed to pick up from the store were the marshmallows. We always seem to have a monster, Costco-sized bag of SkinnyPop in our pantry, so I used that instead of making popcorn from scratch. So much easier, plus I have something to snack on while I make the popcorn balls!

Just find the biggest bowl you have and pour in your popcorn. I like this one because it has the measurements on the side so I don’t have to individually measure out 8 cups of popcorn.

Set your popcorn aside and get to work on the sweet marshmallowy goodness to pour on top. Melt together the butter, corn syrup, and sugar. If you want to tint your marshmallow mixture, this would be the time to add your food coloring. Then add in the marshmallows and watch them dissolve into a creamy sauce.

Once all the marshmallows are all melted, pour them right over the popcorn and use your biggest spatula to stir everything together until all the popcorn pieces are covered. If you feel like getting a little crazy, you can also add some sprinkles.

Now, to form them in to Easter eggs, you could just form them with your hands into a slightly uneven oval shape. Make sure you grease them up with a little cooking spray or else to you will have sticky popcorn all over your hands.

OR…

You could add a little something extra by stuffing some M&Ms into the center!

To make your surprise inside Easter Eggs, use the largest plastic egg you can find and press the popcorn mixture into one half. Then use your finger to form a little hole and fill it with the candies. Do the same thing with the other half then press the two sides of the Easter egg together. When you pull the plastic egg apart, you should have one while popcorn ball Easter egg.

How adorable are these? Wouldn’t they be a fun addition to an Easter basket? I wrapped them up in plastic wrap once they had set a bit and you could barely tell they were wrapped.

And of course they look like a plain Easter Egg Popcorn Ball, but you and I both know that there is a little somethin somethin inside.

Because every Easter Egg should be filled with candy! Even the popcorn variety!

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:142]

Peppermint Popcorn

December 19, 2016

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. 😉

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:108]

Peanut Butter Chocolate Popcorn

October 31, 2016

Do you need a last minute treat to make for Halloween? I’ve got you covered!

This peanut butter chocolate popcorn mix was something I mixed up at the last minute for a pumpkin carving party last night. I has just spend the weekend baking cookies for a baby shower and my cookie decorating class, so the last thing I wanted to do was bake something. Since one of my favorite holiday treats involves popcorn and melted chocolate, I figured I could adapt that to make it more suitable for Halloween.

I started by popping 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels over the stove (which will make approx. 6 cups of popcorn). You could always pop the popcorn with an air popper, or use the microwave popcorn, but I think stove-popped popcorn tasted a little bit better.

To pop the popcorn on the stove, I start by putting the oil and a couple kernels in the bottom of a stock pot and place it over medium heat. Once the kernels have popped, I know the oil had heated up enough to pop the rest of the kernels. I add the rest of them in, put the top on the pot, give it a good shake, and let them pop away. When I don’t hear any more popping, I remove the pot from the heat.

For the toppings, I used white chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, and peanut butter chips. I wanted it to look white, orange, and black, so I added a bit of orange food coloring to the peanut butter to brighten it up a bit. I also ended up mixing in some white chocolate because it was looking a little too dark.

Once all the popcorn was coated in chocolate or peanut butter, I dumped it all out on a sheet of parchment to harden. I also too the opportunity, while the chocolate was still wet, to add in some sprinkles and candies. I used orange and black sprinkles, candy corns, and M&Ms. Reese’s piece would have also have been good in this (But, I didn’t want to buy the giant bag of them, knowing I would only use a handful. I would just send up eating the rest…probably in one sitting. I certainly didn’t need that.)

After the chocolate was hardened, I tossed all the popcorn together. That way each bit contains a bit of chocolate and peanut butter!

The popcorn mix came out just as I had hoped. It was perfectly festive, and most importantly, very tasty! It made a great little treat to snack on while we carved pumpkins. If you want to make this in the last remaining hours of Halloween, you could serve it in a bowl or in little treat bags, which would be very cute.

If you happen to read this after Halloween, you can still make this recipe! Just skip the food coloring in the peanut butter chips and swap out the Halloween-themed candy! Peanut butter chocolate popcorn is good all year long!

PIN NOW, MAKE LATER

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:90]

Parmesan Ranch Popcorn

July 6, 2016

I am excited to finally be sharing this Parmesan ranch popcorn. I have been meaning to make this popcorn ever since returning from a girls weekend in Nashville back in April!

On our first night in town, my friend, Michelle, and I stopped in a popular local restaurant off of Broadway. The place was packed and we were forced to eat dinner at the bar. While we were disappointed at first, it turned out that eating at the bar wasn’t quite so bad. Not only did we get to chat up the cute bartender, but we also had access to bottomless bowls of their house popcorn. We went through about three bowls before we (and by we, I mean Michelle) figured out what made the popcorn so addicting – ranch seasoning! We both went home from our trip with a strong desire to make our very own ranch popcorn!

There are lots of different ways to cook up popcorn – stove top, microwave, air popper, etc. For this recipe, I decided to make my very first attempt at cooking popcorn on the stove. I relied heavily on Michelle and this blog post to help me get the hang of it. It’s not as easy and you may think!

After all the popcorn kernels were popped, I took the pot off of the stove and drizzled melted butter over the top, gave it a toss, then generously sprinkled on the ranch seasoning. While the popcorn was still warm, I also tossed in the Parmesan cheese. I used shredded Parmesan which melted slightly around the kernels and sort of bound them together to form little popcorn balls. Grated Parmesan would also work great here since it would melt into all the nooks and crannies of the popcorn.

And not to pat myself on the back too much, but the Parmesan was an excellent touch to this already addicting popcorn. That bag you see there, I ate that entire thing once I finished taking photos, it was that good.

The ranch seasoning is full of lots of different flavors and spices and the Parmesan adds a nice salty touch. If you serve it to friends, I bet you they won’t be able to put their finger on what you used to flavor the popcorn. But they will keep eating it to find out!

I used a seasoning mix from my local spice store that is almost exactly like a Ranch spice packet you would find at the grocery store. Michelle used the Hidden Valley ranch spice mix and she said that her popcorn turned out great, too. Really, any ranch seasoning would be delicious sprinkled on some buttery popcorn. But I think it’s the Parmesan cheese that really puts it over the top.

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:51]