12 Days of Sweets: Day 9
Popcorn is one of the most asked for snacks in our house and we always have it in our pantry. We love to make a big bowl of air popped popcorn and top it with sweet and savory seasonings to snack on while we watch a family movie together. This recipe is something I pulled from deep in my archives from my college years. It’s a fun, fruity colored caramel corn that’s great for entertaining and holidays.
We use our air popper to pop our popcorn. We love the Amish Country blue popcorn; however, any popcorn you can find at your local grocery store should work fine. If you need to utilize microwave popcorn try to find either a butter free or low fat option. The popcorn heavy in butter and seasoning will change the flavor.
The fun part about this recipe is picking out what jello flavor you are going to use. I used lime and raspberry to make this popcorn into perfect holiday colors. If you’re making this for other holidays or occasions you can match the colors with the celebration. With the jello mixture you essentially are a flavored caramel sauce. Bringing it to a rolling boil ensures the caramel will set up and become hard on the surface of the popcorn. This is also a way that you can tell the sugar has fully dissolved.
If you wish, once cool enough to handle you can form the popcorn into popcorn balls. You will want to wear well oiled food safe gloves for this task. Once your colors have all hardened, mix together and enjoy! Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container for up to one week.
Ingredients (per color):
- 10 cups of freshly popped popcorn
- 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 3 ounce package of jello
- 3 tablespoons of water
- 1 tablespoon of corn syrup
Method:
- Preheat oven to 200°F.
- Line a baking pan with parchment paper and evenly spread popcorn over top.
- In a heavy bottomed pot add butter, sugar, jello, water and corn syrup.
- Slowly bring jello mixture to a boil stirring frequently.
- Once a hard boil has been reached continue to boil jello mixture for two minutes stirring constantly.
- Remove from heat and very carefully drizzle over popcorn.
- Stir popcorn to coat in jello mixture.
- Bake popcorn for five minutes.
- Stir/turn popcorn and bake for an additional five minutes.
- Turn popcorn out onto a fresh sheet of parchment paper spreading it out evenly.
- Allow popcorn to cool and dry.
- Repeat for other colors.
- Once dry, enjoy and store leftovers in an airtight container.
The Petite Homestead 