Want to serve up a fun Halloween treat? Make Halloween Candy Popcorn!
It’s the third Tuesday of the month and that means it’s time for another Pinterest Challenge! If you aren’t familiar with this challenge, it’s basically a group of bloggers that get together each month to try a pin we’ve pinned to our boards. It’s a way of motivating ourselves (and you too) to not just pin, but to make it happen! You can see all of my Pinterest projects at the bottom of this post, so check them out and see what inspires you!
Halloween Candy Popcorn + Tips
Since Halloween is coming up, I decided to make a food item that had a spooky vibe and was easy to make. So, when I came across the green zombie popcorn recipe from McCormick on Pinterest, I knew I had to make it. My family LOVES popcorn and I knew this recipe would be a hit.
Truth be told, I wanted this popcorn to be black. However, when I added the black, it turned out purple! The result wasn’t quite what I was going for, but it looked good, so I stuck with it 🙂
I ended up making three batches of this popcorn for the family and in doing so, I learned a few things~
- Do not leave the stove when cooking the sugar mixture. This should be continuously stirred once it starts to boil.
- Do not put the popcorn baking sheets any lower than the middle of the oven or you risk burning the sugar.
- The bake time can be cut from 1 hour to 30 minutes. Just make sure to break up the popcorn pieces to smaller pieces every 10 minutes. *Be careful as it will be HOT!*
- This can be made into any color. Just keep in mind that using regular food coloring will not produce deep colors. For example, red food coloring will produce a pink popcorn and black produced purple. For deeper colors, a gel food coloring will probably produce truer colors.
- Sprinkle salt over the popcorn while the sugar coating was still wet. The salt will balance out the sweetness and make a better tasting candy popcorn.
- Take out any kernels that didn’t pop. Biting down on one of these is no fun 🙁
- For a quick clean up, fill the mixing bowl and pot with hot tap water and let it sit. This will quickly and easily dissolve any hard sugar without having to scrub.
To make the popcorn, I used our trusty air popcorn maker. It’s my family’s favorite way to make popcorn since all we have to do is dump popcorn kernels in and plug it in. It doesn’t require any oil and produces crisp popcorn in minutes. AND unlike microwave popcorn, I don’t have to worry about it burning!
Once the sugar and butter mixture are cooked, add it over the popped popcorn and mix it in until everything is evenly coated. Then, spread the coated popcorn onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet.
Then, serve or store in airtight containers/bags.
Overall, this recipe was a success and it will be going into my recipe box.
Halloween Candy Popcorn - September Pin Challenge
How to make Halloween candy popcorn. A sweet and salty popcorn treat.
Ingredients
- 10 cups popped popcorn
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup corn syrup
- 1/2 cup butter
- 10-15 drops black food coloring
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°F and place popcorn in large bowl mixing bowl.
- Add sugar, butter and corn syrup into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and continue to cook for 4 additional minutes, making sure to continuously stir. Stir in the food coloring and baking soda (the mixture will foam up). Remove from heat and pour over the popcorn in bowl. Quickly toss to evenly coat the popcorn and spread onto parchment lined baking pan. Sprinkle with salt.
- Bake for a minimum of 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes and breaking up clumps of popcorn. Cook an additional 10 minutes if the coating is still sticky. Cool completely on pan. Store in airtight container.
Recommended Products
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Hamilton Beach Electric Hot Air Popcorn Popper, Healthy Snack, Makes up to 18 Cups, Red (73400) -
Good Cook Melamine (12 Piece) Bowl Set: Mixing Bowls With Lids, Nesting Serving Bowls For Kitchen Storage -
Wilton Perfect Results Premium Mega Non-Stick Pan, 21 x 15-Inch Baking Pan -
Reynolds Kitchens Parchment Paper Roll with SmartGrid, 45 Square Feet -
Simply Calphalon Nonstick 1-Quart Sauce Pan
Your purple popcorn looks so colorful and fun. This is the perfect Halloween snack! Love it!
I actually like the purple color for Halloween. I’m planning a Halloween game night, setting the table in bright green and purple. Gonna give it a try. Appreciate all your tips.
I think I like it better purple than green, lol. I like that it is sweet and salty at the same time. Your tips will definitely come in handy when trying my hand at this recipe. Thanks for taking the time and writing them down!!!
How I love popcorn – any flavor, any color!! This sounds a little like kettle corn. Appreciate your tips for improving the recipe. Going to have to try it!!
What a great Halloween snack, my daughters would love it!! Thanks so much for hosting this challenge Erlene!!
What a great treat for a Halloween party!
This is very cool, what fun for a halloween party or to pop into little bags for trick or treaters.
Purple popcorn is a good Halloween treat. I love the combination of sweet and salty. I wish I had a bowlful right now 🙂
I love popcorn but Hubby doesn’t so this would be a perfect treat for my students. I think the deep purple fits the Halloween theme eerily ;>).
That does look yummy! Even if it isn’t black purple does work well as a Halloween color too. Pinned.
We love popcorn at our house! I think this would be a huge hit!
Lots of fun! Caramel corn has always been a favorite snack.
The photo with the Raven eating the popcorn is perfect, just perfect. I pinned that one.
Oh my goodness, i’m hungry just looking at that! Looks so good!
I make caramel corn every year for the family. I’ll be trying out some food coloring this year! The purple looks better, in my opinion. 🙂
What a fun seasonal snack. I think I like the purple better than I would have the black anyway! Purple seems whimsical for Halloween to me. Thanks for those tips, good info!
Mmmmm… This looks yummy and I love the spooky colors! -Marci @ Stone Cottage Adventures