Today is National Popcorn Day and in honour of that I present to you some favourite popcorn recipes:
Apple Jack Popcorn Brittle
Ingredients:
1 qt. popped popcorn
2 cups Apple Jack cereal
1 cup chopped peanuts
3/4 cup apple juice
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. vinegar
1/4 tsp. salt
Instructions: Combine the popcorn, cereal, and peanuts. Butter the sides of a heavy saucepan and add to it the remaining ingredients. Cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and this has come to a boil, stirring continually. Bring this mixture to hard ball stage (250 degrees F on your candy thermometer). Pour this syrup mixture over the popcorn mixture and toss it to coat it well. Spread it in a buttered rectangular baking pan (approximately 11 by 16). Allow this to cool and harden. Break up into pieces and serve.
Peanut Butter Cup Popcorn
Ingredients:
4 cups popped popcorn
6 oz. chocolate chips
1 T. peanut butter
melted butter to your taste
Instructions: In a double boiler or your microwave, melt the chocolate chips and the peanut butter together. Pour melted butter over the popcorn and then the melted chocolate mixture. Toss to coat well. Allow to cool before serving.
Koolaid Popcorn Balls
Ingredients:
6 cups popped popcorn
1/2 cup butter
1 pkg. of marshmallows
1 pkg. unsweetened Koolaid
Instructions: Melt the butter over low to medium heat. Add the marshmallows and stir often until they melt. Mix in the Koolaid powder and stir well until it has dissolved completely into the marshmallow mixture. Pour this mixture over the popcorn and toss well until thoroughly coated. Allow this to cool well enough to handle and then butter your hands or spray with Pam before forming it into balls.
Popcorn Seasonings:
Each of the following seasoning mixes makes enough for about 12 cups of popped popcorn. You can either toss the popcorn with melted butter and then the seasoning or you can add the seasoning directly to the melted butter prior to tossing it. Many of these can be mixed up ahead of time and kept in baggies or jars for when ready to use them or put in pretty little bags or jars and given as gifts.
Herb mixture: 1 tsp. each of sage, fennel, marjoram, thyme, basil, savoury, rosemary, oregano, parsley, and 2 tsp. garlic
Lemon-dill: 1/2 T. lemon pepper (or 2 T. lemon zest) and 1 tsp. dill
Taco: 1 T. each cumin and chili powder. This is tasty with some Parmesan sprinkled on too!
Pizza: 2 tsp. garlic, 2 tsp. Italian seasoning, 1 tsp. paprika, 1/8 tsp. pepper and 1/4 cup grated Parmesan.
miclaundry says
I just finished dinner, and yet your recipies have awakened the tastebuds– looks good! I want to give the peanut butter cup popcorn a try. Will let you know how it turns out. Thanks for sharing.
almurta says
National popcorn day! Well that something we certainly don’t have in Australia. I like the sound of lemon popcorn – I don’t have a sweet tooth.
Do you have a special machine to pop the corn in? Everytime I make it in a pot I end up with heaps of burnt pieces of corn in the bottom of the pot.
cydlee61 says
Well I just use a deep cast iron skillet with a lid and give a shake every so often while it cooks and that seems to help prevent that problem mostly. My mom used more of a large stock pot but again shook it a lot every so often while cooking. Some people like to use those hot air poppers and they work well to avoid the burnt pieces but I like the more old fashioned taste of using the skillet. My friend has the most wonderful popcorn pot though and I really want one of those. It has a crank on the side of the pot so you can turn the crank while it pops and that keeps anything from sitting at the bottom and burning. It gives you the old fashioned taste but seems to work the best of anything I’ve ever experienced. Here’s a picture of one: http://www.kitchenemporium.com/cgi-bin/kitchen/prod/21np581.html I read recently that some people use a pressure cooker to make their popcorn and they claim to never get any burnt bits when they do it that way. I don’t own a pressure cooker so have never tried it myself.