Monday, December 15, 2008

Gingerbread Popcorn

A special thank you to our friends who invited us over for dinner and to decorate gingerbread houses! We had a wonderful time and I have to say for this being my first house to make it turned out cute. We used the kits and I really liked them so I would recommend you try it. They come with plenty of candy to cover your house. So today's recipe is along the inspiration of gingerbread flavors.

I love to snack on popcorn so as soon as I saw Tracy from Rah Cha Chow post a gingerbread popcorn I knew it was something I had to make. You always see the cheddar and caramel flavors pop up around the holidays so gingerbread popcorn only makes sense to have as well. This has inspired me to come up with some new flavors so as soon as the holidays are over and I loose the 10 pounds I gain from tasting everything I'll get right on it.

I measured out the popcorn on the 1st batch I made. 15 cups came out to about 2 packages of popcorn, for the 2nd batch I used 3 bags and it worked out much better.

Gingerbread Popcorn
(Adapted from Rah Cha Chow adapted from Culinary in the Desert)

15 cups popped popcorn
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line two large baking dishes (I used 9 X 13 pans) with foil and coat with cooking spray. Fill each with 7 1/2 cups popcorn.

Combine butter, brown sugar, molasses, corn syrup, ginger, cinnamon, and salt in a large, heavy bottom saucepan. Heat over medium heat until mixture boils. Boil for 5 minutes; stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add baking soda. Pour over popcorn; toss to coat.

Bake at 250 for one hour, carefully stirring the warm mixture about every 15 minutes. Cool completely.
I found these super cute buckets at the 99 cent store and stocked up on them to fill with popcorn.
Here's everyone's completed houses:

You get a special treat this week as I will be posted everyday this week with items going in my gift basket.

5 comments:

  1. What a great idea for a party! Those houses are really cute and I like the idea of the gingerbread popcorn.

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  2. The popcorn sounds so festive and delicious!!

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  3. I've done gingerbread with friends for a few years ... I still need to write about the ones we did this year.

    But all these years and I never thought to bring gingerbread popcorn? DUH! Love the cute buckets.

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  4. Sooo cute! I love the looks and sounds of this popcorn. Glad to know I'm not the only one who takes advantage of the dollar stores! Have a great week!

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