Popcorn Mania

My new favorite baking/recipe blog Our Best Bites has a plethora of amazing popcorn recipes! I first fell in love with their Cinna Bun Popcorn recipe, and now they have posted a recipe that I have been trying to find for awhile: Jello popcorn. They also have a Peppermint Bark Popcorn recipe that is calling my name.
However, they don't just do popcorn...you really should check out their blog, they have some amazing recipes!
So, here is the Jello Popcorn recipe.
Fruity Candy Popcorn {AKA Jello Popcorn}

8 cups popped popcorn
1/4 C real butter (that's half a stick)
3 T light corn syrup
1/2 C sugar
1 3.5oz box jello, any flavor (not the sugar free kind)

Preheat oven to 300°F. Line a jelly roll pan with foil or parchment. If using foil, spray lightly with non-stick spray and set aside. Place popcorn in an extra large mixing bowl.

Place butter and syrup in a sauce pan on medium heat. Stir until butter is melted. Add sugar and Jello and stir to combine.

Increase heat and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat so it just simmers. Continue simmering for 5 minutes. You'll start off with a mixture that's sometimes thick (depending on the flavor, see note at end) and as it cooks the sugar will dissolve and it will become a little more liquid-ish.

After the sugar mixture simmers for 5 minutes, immediately pour over popcorn in bowl. Be careful, it's super hot!! Mix right away and keep stirring so everything gets well coated. Spread mixture onto prepared pan and spread out evenly.

Pop in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes. I've noticed that some flavors of jello have more mix than others (kind of like my discovery about different brands/flavors of cake mix noted in this post). For example, the strawberry is usually much thicker than the lime. If you notice this, you might want to bake the mixture for a few minutes longer to make sure it gets cooked all the way.

Remove the pan from the oven and let cool to room temp. Then break into pieces and enjoy! You can certainly eat this un-baked as well and it's just soft and gooey, but definitely bake it if you're going to pack it up for giving, or serve it as party food so it will be light and crunchy.

My favorite containers for goodies like this come from the dollar section at Target. Check out the supply at your store next time you're there- they always have cute ones!