Popcorn - More than Just Salt & Butter (Sweet Edition)

On Friday I took you for a little trip my spice cupboard while I experimented with flavouring popcorn. Today we get to play with sweet stuff!

If you're an Instgram follower you may have noticed my first attempt at this a few weeks ago with a Bounty bar. Today I get to try a few more. To start with, lets stick with the basic powders. With the 'spices' I sprayed lightly with canola oil before sprinkling on the flavour. The powdered sugars  seemed to stick OK with just the steam from the popcorn, but I did do those first.

(By the way, these cute little cupcake cups are available from Highland Homewares, my local kitchen shop - and they have an online store too!)


Vanillin Sugar:
While I'm not normally a huge vanilla fan (weird, I know) I do quite like this - more than I expected to! And to be honest, it is my favourite of the sweet 'spice' flavours.

Nutmeg:
It surprised me that I didn't enjoy this so much. I normally love the smoky, nutty-ness of this spice, but with the popcorn it didn't quite work. I think I may have been a little heavy handed with it, and it needs another flavour with it to balance it out.

Cinnamon Sugar:
Think 'crunchy doughnut' - that's exactly what it tasted like! I'd actually really like to try this with some coconut oil, I think it would give it a fresh kick

Icing Sugar:
This reminds me a little of fairy floss, that nice sugary after taste you get before your tongue and top of your mouth starts to burn at the end of the bag. I could certainly eat a *lot* of this and am thinking my good old butter & salt movie combo might be in for a fight.

Chocolate Milk Mix:
I used Nesquik as that's what I had on hand, I'm sure you could use any number of cocoa based powders for this, I'm not sure how Milo would go though, the texture might be too course to stick to the popcorn. I'll just add that to the 'next time' try list ;-)  This is the only one of the six I tried today that made me stop & say 'Oh My!' Again I'm thinking it would be great with a little coconut oil to give it that little bit extra.

Strawberry Milk Mix:
Again I used Nesquik. This powder didn't stick as well as the icing sugar or chocolate so I would certainly recommend using a spray oil, butter or coconut oil to help the flavour stick. While I quite like a glass of strawberry milk every now & then, I must admit I didn't really go for the popcorn version. A little too sweet for me, but by the time you add a sticking agent it may calm the flavour down a little. Worth another experiment I think

My last experiment would have to be my favourite - chocolate! I found this recipe on Kidspot & couldn't resist trying a few variations. With each of these I broke a 50-ish g bar of chocolate, melted in the microwave on high for 30 seconds & mixed in 1 cup of popped corn. The Picnic bar did require a little further zapping, but the others all melted just fine. I think if you were to melt on the stove you would most likely get a more even cover on your corn as you'd have more control of the melt, but for a quick fix, I think this worked brilliantly! I did try all of them warm and with all things melty I do thing they tasted better that way, although I wouldn't argue if served the cooled version.

Milky Way:
Very chocolatey finished product. Perhaps a little too much chocolate (as if there could be such a thing), so maybe a little more popcorn with this one. A safe bet for fussy tastebuds.










Picnic:
I forgot about the biscuit centre in this bar and as such probably wouldn't use it again - however - I *adore* the nutty surprise of the peanuts that present themselves randomly through the mix. I can live with three lots of crunch (popcorn, nuts and biscuit) for that sensation alone.

Mars:
This was the bar featured in the original recipe and I can see this being a classic. Very nice combination - I'd still like to add some salt to the caramel I think for a more grown up flavour.

Snickers:
Perhaps my all time favourite chocolate bar and while the texture of this is much smoother than the Picnic, dare I say I prefer the separation of flavours you get in the Picnic mix. This one tastes pretty much the same every bite.

Bounty:
This has never been a favourite bar of mine, but of late (let's blame the baby) I've really taken to coconut. This was the first bar I tried and I think it's definitely a stayer

Cherry Ripe:
I admit I tend to avoid Cherry Ripe ever since making myself sick on them as a child. It's only in the last ten years or so I've been able to bring myself to taste them on occasion - like at Christmas time mixed through ice-cream with toasted nuts, and mixed fruit, and more chocolate . . . . where was I? Right. Like anything I think once you've tasted the 'starter' version & then the 'revved up' version, it's hard to go back. Sorry Bounty Bar, I think my vote goes with Cherry Ripe - but in small portions. Cherry, coconut, chocolate, crunch - everything good about the letter 'C' :-)

Now please excuse me while I drink a dam full of water and walk (or waddle) to the back of beyond and back ;-D

Have you entered our Kambrook Little Chefs Flutter Butter Popcorn Maker giveaway? You can find all the details in this previous post.


~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.