Thursday, January 6, 2011

how to make white chocolate peppermint popcorn

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I just realized I never posted my recipe for this!  We made this on Christmas day I think. . . and it was so easy.  Even better, it was delicious, and I don't care for peppermint, so that's saying something!

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You will need 1 cup of smashed candy canes, 16 oz white chocolate bark(vanilla almondbark?  Is that the same thing?  Worked for us!), and 4 qt popped popcorn (about 1/2 cup unpopped kernals).  Simple, right?

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First, we gathered up all the leftover and broken candy canes, put them in a ziplock bag, and smashed them.  The recipe calls for one cup of smashed candy canes--I had maybe 6 or 7 canes which was enough for about 3/4 cup and it was plenty.

Either roll them with a rolling pin, or hand them over to your resident smasher with a mallet!  Ethan did a great job of smashing our candy canes.  You want an almost sand-like consistency.

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Meanwhile, pop your popcorn and melt 16 oz vanilla almond/white chocolate bark on a double broiler--it's better to do it that way than in the microwave, much less likely to burn.  I in fact do not own a double broiler (next year, Santa?) so I did the old school technique of a pot inside a pot.  I boiled about an inch of water just beneath my second pot.  I stirred the chocolate quite often to get an even melt and avoid burn.  

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Looks creamy and yummy now!

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Now, take half of your crushed candy canes and add them to the melted chocolate.

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Stir it up good.

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Then start folding it into the popcorn.  Stir carefully so you don't pulverize your popcorn.

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When its all mixed and gooey, add the other half of the candy canes--this last step gives the popcorn a prettier appearance and just the slightest crunch of candy cane crystals when you devour your popcorn treat.

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Which you will, because gosh dang, it's good!

Try it, seriously the easiest new recipe I tried this past season!

5 comments:

laurie said...

yum! this looks delicious. i have the same question you do - what is almond bark exactly??? it sure is good and i know it's been around for quite some time. :-)

Lorie said...

It is really good WITHOUT the peppermint crushed candy too! Just melt the almond bark and pour it over the popcorn!

I gave that out for Christmas a couple years ago and EVERYONE asked for the recipe. It was so funny to tell them how easy it really was!!

Lorie said...

PS - almond bark is just candy coating. It comes in vanilla and chocolate flavor. They can't call it chocolate and white chocolate because it doesn't have any cocoa butter in it (the FDA won't let you call it chocolate unless you do) It uses oil (vegetable oil probably) instead.

Have you ever over heated it? It turns to a crazy grainy solid if you do because you burn the sugar and it caramelizes. ;D

So it isn't anything too crazy, but definitely sugary!!

Ami said...

Try white chocolate chips mixed with candy cane kisses melted over kettle corn and then drizzled with melted milk chocolate chips - Yummy!

Lisa @ Fern Creek Cottage said...

Left over candy canes-check
Almond bark in pantry-check
Popcorn-check
So excited to try this yummy recipe and I don't even have to go to the store!!