Blackberry Popcorn

I love flavored popcorn! My kids love it, too. If I ever need something to motivate my kids to quickly clean the basement (you know…if company is coming or something), this will do the trick!

The fun thing about this Blackberry Popcorn is that you can change the flavoring and have a completely different kind! Try mixing Rootbeer and Vanilla (yum!).  I love the Marsden & Bathe Blackberry Flavor.  Marsden and Bathe carries a lot of different varieties of flavoring. Plus, you can get them on Amazon if your local grocery store doesn’t sell them. And the price isn’t that bad. You can almost always find a 2 ounce bottle for $6-$7 dollars. If you want to try something really good with these…replace the vanilla with a different flavor in your sugar cookies. Yummy!

 

For the Blackberry Popcorn, here’s what you need:

You also need to get a candy thermometer. The one I use is a cheap glass one from the regular store. I love my candy thermometer!!  You also need popcorn (which I seem to have left out of the photo. Oops!)

The very first thing you need to do is pop your popcorn. I used about 2 cups of unpopped popcorn so I could share with a group of girls coming over for a church activity. After your popcorn is popped, set that aside.

Start by melting a cube of butter.

When it’s all melted, add a 1/4 C of water and 1/2 C corn syrup. Stir it all together well.

Then add 2 cups of sugar. I try to pour it in the middle as much as possible. You want to make sure ALL of the sugar is incorporated. If there is even one grain out, it will crystalize the batch. Don’t worry….it’s not that hard. I’ve never had a batch get crystalized before.

Stir the mixture until all of the sugar is dissolved. Bring it to a rapid boil. Once it’s boiling, stick your candy thermometer in.

You need to watch it kind of close. The temperature rises pretty fast. Once it gets to about 235 – 240 degrees (soft ball stage – there should be a line telling you on the thermometer), remove from the heat.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 2 tablespoons of flavoring, and enough food coloring to get the color you want. Mix everything up.

Pour over the candy over your popcorn and stir it up really good.

If you don’t want all of the pieces to stick together in one big blob, lay out a few pieces of wax paper and spread the popcorn out. It doesn’t take very long to cool off. If you want…sneak a few bites.

This popcorn is super yummy! Every time I make it, I make a huge batch and always wish I had made more!

Raspberry Popcorn
adapted from The Prepared Pantry

2 Cups of unpopped popcorn kernels (about 10ish cups popped)
1 stick of butter
1/2 Cup of light corn syrup
1/4 Cup of water
2 Cups of Sugar
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
2 tablespoons of blackberry flavoring
food coloring

I’m linking this post up to these parties.