Monday, December 23, 2013

NomNom: Chocolate Covered Peppermint Popcorn

Happy Monday everyone! First, I want to apologize for the lack of posts last week. Some unexpected things came up in my personal life last week and I've been trying to deal with it one day at a time, so blogging was honestly the last thing on my mind. I blog because I enjoy sharing things I love with you, not because it's my job or I have to keep a "blogging schedule," so with that said, my personal life will always comes first. Social media falls after. Although blogging is such an open space to allow random people to peek into your life, I am very much a private person. The irony, right?

Be patient with me. Please and thank you.

Over the weekend, I started to slowly bounce back into my social life and get back into things that make me happy, such as being in the kitchen. Every year, around this time I make something that deals with peppermint candy because not only does it get me in the holiday spirit, but I just love the cool minty flavor when it's mixed in baked goods. This popcorn was an easy-no-BS-once-you-start-to-eat one-you-can't-stop type of recipe that also required very little thinking which is exactly what I needed.


The recipe calls you to crush/whack peppermint candies. I did so with a rolling pin. It was therapeutic.

I then decided to add another layer of chocolate at the end because….I felt like it. I mean, why stop at the white chocolate? It's the holidays so you mine as well go big. Worry about the calories after the holidays.

We'll deal with it together. Xo.


Ingredients
1 bag lightly salted microwave popcorn
1/4 cup crushed peppermint candy (~12 small candy canes)
8 ounces of white chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)
4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate chips


Procedure
1. Pop your popcorn and transfer to large mixing bowl.

2. Unwrap candy canes and put them in a zip lock bag. Put the bag on top of kitchen towel and whack with a rolling pin to crush peppermint candies.

3. Melt the white chocolate in 30 second increments in the microwave until completely melted and smooth. Add the crushed peppermint candies to the melted chocolate and mix well.

4. Pour melted chocolate/candy mixture to the popcorn and stir well to evenly coat the popcorn.

5. Spread the popcorn mixture evenly on lined baking sheet (I used parchment paper).

6. Melt the semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second increments until completely melted and smooth.

7. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the popcorn with a spoon.

8. Let it set until the chocolate hardens. You can also pop it in the fridge (~15 minutes) to expedite the process. Once it's hardened, break up the popcorns into chunks and enjoy. Store in airtight container for 2-3 days but trust me, it will be gone by then.