Treats | My Foray Into Food Storage

There’s a famous store in my local mall that sells “Zebra” popcorn, which, translated into English, is caramel coated popcorn with dark and white chocolate drizzled on top. It is quite delicious.

Well, our church youth group is having an activity tonight, and one of the young women I work with suggested having zebra popcorn as a treat. It’s a large group, so I decided to try my hand at making a knock off version. All the recipes I found called for baking the caramel corn in the oven before drizzling it with chocolate.

There’s only one problem with that. I don’t have an oven right now. It broke a week and a half ago, and I’m suffering without it. The repairman ordered the necessary part to repair it, but it’s not getting installed until tomorrow. And the activity is tonight!

Since I promised to make this yummy caramel corn for tonight, I had to find a substitute. I took my mom’s popcorn ball recipe and used that instead of a traditional caramel corn. It turned out really well! It also came together really fast and didn’t heat up my kitchen. That’s a definite plus!

If you want a crisp, crunchy caramel corn, this recipe isn’t for you. The resulting caramel corn from this recipe is softer and a tad chewy, but not overly or unpleasantly so.

Want to know how I made it? Watch and see.

First, I made the popcorn by popping it on the stove in a big pot with a little oil. I didn’t take pictures. Sorry. You can use whatever kind of popcorn you’d like to use, but I think it is best if it is plain, unbuttered popcorn.

Next, I made the “caramel” in another large pot (you can use a Dutch oven) by combining sugars butter, corn syrup (I made two recipes with light corn syrup and one with dark corn syrup), and salt (see actual recipe at the bottom of this post). When it was heated and combined, I added the popcorn and stirred it for a couple of minutes until the popcorn was coated with the caramel mixture. Next, I spread it on a parchment coated cookie sheet and let it cool. (This is the batch using dark corn syrup.)

Once it was cool, I broke it up into smaller pieces. It was pretty soft.
Finally, I melted some dark and white melting chocolate in the microwave and drizzled it on the popcorn.

And, voila! That was is! It took me less than an hour from start to finish to make three double sided batches of this corn. Now it’s bagged up and ready to serve tonight. I hope they like it as much as I do!
Before I close, here’s the promised recipe for the caramel corn.

Popcorn Balls (or No Oven Needed Caramel Corn)
Recipe from my mom
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup corn syrup (light or dark)

1/2 teaspoon salt

A few drops of food color (optional, I didn’t add any)

8-10 cups popped popcorn
Heat all ingredients except popcorn to simmering in a Dutch oven or a large heavy pot over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in popcorn taking care to remove any unopposed or partially popped kernels. Cook, stirring constantly until popcorn is well coated, about 3 minutes. Cool slightly.
If making caramel corn, spread popcorn on a parchment covered cookie sheet and let cool. Is making zebra corn, break into pieces once the corn is cool. Then drizzle with chocolate of your choice. I used dark and white melting chocolate. Store in a sealed container or bag.
If making popcorn balls, while popcorn is still warm enough to shape, but is cool enough to handle without getting burned, dip hands in cool water and shape mixture into 8 popcorn balls about 2 1/2 inch in diameter. Place on waxed or parchment paper. Cool completely. Wrap individually or place in plastic bags and tie or seal.
This is particularly fun for Halloween and a throwback to the days of homemade treats given out alongside store bought candy.
Hope you enjoy this fun recipe!

Laurel Laurie Staten Nguyen Newhall, CA

Chex WHAT? Chex Crispy Treats!

Chex Crispy Treats

A few years ago, we were out of Rice Krispies cereal, and we NEEDED some Rice Krispie Treats. To appease the masses (a.k.a. my hubby and boys), I substituted Corn Chex instead, and a new favorite recipe was born. Sure, we could have used Rice Chex, but we love our Corn Chex. And when added to these treats, they have a great flavor which is better than Rice Krispies Treats! Don’t believe me? Try it yourself, and let me know what you think. Did I mention that this is super easy? Well, it is! Here’s the recipe:

Chex Crispy Treats

14 cups of Corn Chex (or one 14 oz box)

20 ounces of marshmallows (or two 10-oz bags of marshmallows)

1 stick of salted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Grease your cookie sheet with the stick of butter. Put remaining butter in a large, non-stick pan and melt over medium heat. When melted, add the marshmallows and stir to combine. Allow the marshmallows to melt, stirring occasionally. When the marshmallows are completely melted and incorporated with the butter, turn off the heat, and add the vanilla. Stir to combine. Add the corn chex and fold gently until all pieces are coated. Next, transfer the chex crispy treat mixture to your cookie sheet and press into the pan. Allow to cool before cutting.

And here’s a step-by-by step with pictures!

Here are the ingredients: Corn Chex, Mini Marshmallows (you can use regular size), Vanilla, and Butter.

Grease the pan with the stick of butter.

Like this.

Put the rest of the stick into a non-stick pan and turn the heat on medium. You may notice that I’m using my pressure cooker. Yes the very pressure cooker I used to make stew last week. It is a super versatile pan and has a great non-stick coating (perfect for this sticky dish).

Melt the butter.

When it’s melted, add the marshmallows. Stir to coat the marshmallows with the melted butter. Keep the heat on medium.

They will melt quickly. After a minute or so, they’ll look like this.

Then like this…

And finally, they're ready. Actually, it takes less than 5 minutes on my stove. It's probably closer to 3 minutes.

And finally, they’re ready. It takes less than 5 minutes on my stove. Actually, it’s probably closer to 3 minutes. Turn off the heat.

Add the vanilla.

It will bubble up. This is normal. Stir it into the marshmallow/butter mixture.

And it should look like this. Now you're ready to add the Corn Chex.

The marshmallow mixture should look like this. Now you’re ready to add the Corn Chex.

Just dump the entire box right on top of the marshmallow mixture. Fold it in.

It's getting there, but it takes a couple of minutes to incorporate completely.

Keep folding. It’s getting there, but it takes a couple of minutes to incorporate the Chex completely.

Now you’re talkin’! They’re ready.

Dump them on your cookie sheet.

You're going to want to spread them with a spoon, but this is a super, sticky concoction. So, to make it easy, spray the back of your spoon with Pam or another non-stick cooking spray. Trust me, you'll thank me for this tip. It makes spreading these SO much easier!

You’re going to want to spread them with a spoon, but this is a super, sticky concoction. To make it easier, spray the back of your spoon with Pam or another non-stick cooking spray. Trust me, you’ll thank me for this tip. It makes spreading these SO much easier!

I’ve spread them around the pan, but there’s not quite where I want them to be, so I’m going to show you another little trick.

Why am I showing you an empty cookie sheet? This is actually another cookie sheet (same size as the first one) pressed on top of the Chex Crispy Treats. I sprayed the back of the pan with Pam (non-stick cooking spray), and pressed it directly on top of the pan containing the treats. It makes them nice and even and compressed enough that they have a great bite to them.