I am a little bit popcorn crazed right now. In the last 2 weeks I have made cinnamon sugar, s’mores, white chocolate snickerdoodle, strawberry jello, fluffer nutter and… animal cracker flavored popcorn! If I remembered them all! Thanks to my mom who gave me this amazing popcorn recipe book. It has completely inspired me! Her quote from yesterday was “I had no idea what I was starting when I got you that cookbook” … haha!
Naturally this was my treat of choice this year for Valentine’s Day! The colors we tried are red, pink and white chocolate sprinkle (or unicorn!).
Making these popcorn variations was so simple. They turned out delicious and look so festive! For the red and pink all you need is two ingredients – melting candy, and popcorn! The unicorn flavor is simply popcorn, melted white chocolate, and sprinkles. That’s it!
YOU WILL NEED
Red and/or pink melting candy (12 ounce package)
White chocolate chips (12 ounces)
Popcorn (for a full batch of each color I used 1/2 a cup of raw popcorn kernels, air popped to create 8-10 cups of popped corn)
Sprinkles or sanding sugar (we used gold, pink and purple, and stars)
LET’S GET STARTED!
The first step is to pop the popcorn. I use an air popper, a full 1/2 cup of kernels for each batch. You could also make 8-10 cups of popcorn in a whirly pop or on the stove using minimal oil. After it’s popped and cooled you want to go through and take out all the kernels.
Next, you melt the white chocolate chips or melting candy. I put it in a microwave safe dish in the microwave on 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval, until it’s melted and smooth with no lumps. This initial heating and stirring ought to be done by an adult, because the bowl and the candy are extremely hot and tempting for little fingers. Let it sit for a little bit until it’s still liquid but only warm, and then toddlers can help with the stirring and pouring.
Once you have it melted and warm but not hot, pour the liquid into the popcorn bowl and stir gently to coat. This was really fun for my 3 year old and 4 year old to help with!
Now spread it out flat on a large sheet of parchment paper.
For the unicorn flavor, immediately after spreading out the popcorn while it’s still wet, sprinkle generously!
It needs to sit for an hour or two until the candy has hardened. Once it’s no longer sticky, and hardened, you can break it up into little pieces and package it as desired. This could be served immediate, or packaged in air tight containers to save for eating in the next few days, or packaged into little ziplocs for gifts. Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us!
KEEPIN’ IT REAL
So I made 3 full batches of popcorn for this post. It was WAY TOO MUCH! I was just too excited to do all the flavors so I went a little hog wild. I’d recommend picking one color or flavor to make, or just doing one batch of popcorn and splitting it up with the different colors you desire. Also, my 7 almost 8 month old baby is turning into a bit of a terror! He loves his little walker and no less than 3 times during our creation of this popcorn he snuck over and grabbed pink popcorn off the edge of the table, before I realized I should take him out of the walker and put him away from the cooking project. He’s a little too young to start helping, don’t you think? 😉 Don’t worry he didn’t get any into his mouth!
Also my daughter little miss three went a little crazy with the pink melted candy. She just kept licking her fingers and licking the bowl and getting as much pink melted candy as she could!! She is a bit of a sugaraholic, like her mama 🙂
What do you think? Do you have a favorite popcorn variation? Love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
