Swank - Party Popcorn: 75 Creative Recipes for Everyones Favorite Snack

Copyright 2014 by Ashton Swank

Photography 2014 by Jason Wyche

A Hollan Publishing, Inc. Concept

Food styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop styling by Kira Corbin

All rights reserved.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South,New York, New York 10003.

www.hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Swank, Ashton.

Party popcorn : 75 creative recipes for everyones favorite snack / Ashton Swank ; photography by Jason Wyche.

pages cm Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-544-22223-6 (hardback);

978-0-544-22202-1 (ebk)1. Cooking (Popcorn) I. Title.

TX814.5.P66S82 2014641.65677dc232014001913

v1.1214

I am a stay-at-home-mom dessert blogger, and I am a firm believer in do what you love, and love what you do. The beauty of blogging is that you can create and publish content completely based upon your own interests. Food has always been something Im passionate about, regardless of blogging. I love the creativity I feel in mixing ingredients together to make something new. And I love the beauty I see in a smooth pool of melted chocolate or in a freshly baked cookie with all its buttery wrinkles and crinkles.

Popcorn is a special kind of food for the creative soul because it is the ultimate edible blank canvas. Everything about popcorn begs to be covered, smothered, drizzled, and sprinkled with something exciting and delicious. And that something could be anything . Popcorn has a subtle flavor, so it pairs well with sweet or savory ingredients, which leaves the door wide open for any number of flavor combinations.

Maybe more important than the versatility of popcorn are the warm and nostalgic feelings that accompany it. When I was a kid, it was a special treat to get popcorn at the movie theater. And even then, we had to share it among six siblings. My dad would line each of our cup holders with napkins and fill them with popcorn. Its silly, but as an adult I smile when I think about my dad roughly stuffing handfuls of popcorn into movie theater cup holders while his eagle-eyed children carefully watched to make sure all the portions were exactly the same.

When I was in college, my roommate taught me how to make . As we made the popcorn, we giggled over boys and licked the caramel from our sticky fingers. We decided to hide half of the batch in a bag on top of the refrigerator to keep ourselves from eating all of it in one night. We succeeded in that endeavor, but we completely forgot about the popcorn until we found the bag three months later, when we were moving out of the apartmentwhich made us giggle all over again.

During the holiday season last year, I helped my two-year-old daughter make a popcorn garland for our Christmas tree. And I really couldnt tell you anything more particular about that memory if you asked me to, because it was just a simple moment. I was playing with popcorn with my daughter at Christmastime. And everything was lovely and perfect.

Popcorn, the food we snack on, is never the main attraction. Its something we bring along for the rides that are the most fun in life. We like to keep it with us for the big events and the little moments. And most of all, its there for sharing with the people who will be making memories right alongside us.

recommendations, methods, and measurements

One of the many advantages to creating popcorn treats is that nothing has to be exact. Unlike baking, the chemistry involved in popcorn making is pretty minimal, which means you can add a little here or be a little short on something there without having catastrophic results. I am providing some basic measurement and method guidelines I used in developing the recipes in this book, but feel free to get creative and make adjustments as you go.

popping methods

Air Popping

This is my preferred popping method. Air poppers are available at most major retail stores and most are inexpensive. An air popper is just as easy to use as a microwave and, after the initial cost of the machine, is the most budget-friendly way to pop popcorn. I also love that air popping yields a popcorn with no additional flavors. This allows you to have complete control over the taste. Another great tidbit about air popping: You have total control over the amount of popcorn you make. You can simply pop a single-serving small batch, or you can decide you need a little more and throw another handful of kernels in the machine.

Follow the manufacturers instructions to properly use your air-popping machine.

cup kernels yields approximately 8 cups popped popcorn

Stovetop Popping

Stovetop popping has many of the same benefits as air popping: It is also a very budget-friendly option and gives you a lot of control over the taste and quantity of the popcorn. However, it does require oil, constant attention during popping, and a little bit of elbow grease. The use of oil gives the popcorn a little bit of flavoring you dont get in air popping, but its subtle and wont overwhelm other flavors in a recipe.

To pop popcorn on a stovetop, youll need 1 tablespoon vegetable, canola, or coconut oil for cup kernels. Place the oil and one test kernel into a large, deep pot with a lid that fits comfortably on top. Heat the oil and the kernel over medium heat until the test kernel pops, 3 to 4 minutes. Once it has popped, add the remaining kernels to the pot and cover. Shake the pot back and forth over the burner continuously as the rest of the kernels pop (it may take a minute for the popping to start after you add the remaining kernels to the pot). Once the popping has stopped, remove the pot from the heat immediately so the popcorn on the bottom doesnt burn.

cup kernels yields approximately 8 cups popped popcorn

Microwave Popping

Lets face it: Sometimes the microwave is just the most feasible option for getting the job done. If using microwave popcorn is what works best for you, here are some tips for popping the best possible bag.

Buy natural or organic microwave popcorn because these options will have the least amount of flavoring in the bag. The flavors you will be adding with these recipes will taste much better than the bag flavor, and you dont want your ingredients to be overwhelmed by the likes of imitation butter flavoring.

Buy fat-free or light popcorn if you cant find natural or organic. Again, these options will have very little flavoring in the bags.

Follow the popping instructions on the packaging.

Dont leave the popcorn alone in the microwave! Stand by while the bag is popping, and be sure to remove it when the popping has slowed to one pop every 3 seconds.

Be prepared with more bags of popcorn than a recipe may call for. Its not unusual to get a dud bag of microwave popcorn that does not yield as much popped popcorn as you are expecting.

Did you know that you can make your own microwave popcorn using a brown paper bag? Its one of my favorite lazy-day tricks because it offers all the convenience of a microwave but produces the clean, crisp taste of air-popped or stove-popped popcorn. See my .