Cajun Spiced Popcorn

But sugared almonds are tradition"
"Little chocolates are all the rage now!"
"We went to a wedding where they all had little cupcakes as favours"
"You can get pick'n'mix stands now"
"Have you thought about having...."

I faded out at this point. Eyes glazed over. Dreamy harp music played softly in my ears. I went to my happy place. In the course of planning "The happiest day of our lives", I faded out. A lot.

I'll be the first to admit that almonds/chocolates/cupcakes/pick'n'mix/etc would have been easier than sitting on my kitchen floor at 1am Friday morning, popping, flavouring, and bagging up 70 bags of popcorn for our wedding the next day. Especially after deep clean scrubbing the kitchen for a good two hours before I'd even popped a single kernel.

Sorry. Popping , flavouring, bagging, presentation bagging, and tagging up 70 bags of popcorn which happen to be made up of five different flavours.

Sugar & Spice - icing sugar and cinnamon
Cocoa Mama - Cocoa powder, icing sugar, chocolate chips
Don't Harsh my Mallow - icing sugar and mini marshmallows
Fire in the Disco- Cajun Spicy (Hot!)
Ciao Bella - Italian herb blend

Did the effort pay off?

Heck yes - is the short answer.

Today is our first wedding anniversary and I've made a big bowl of popcorn.

The Cajun spicy popcorn was the favourite. Simply toss Cajun seasoning over freshly popped and still warm plain popcorn and enjoy. Especially the super fiery bits at the bottom. I make my seasoning in bulk from this recipe.

Bonfire Night: Parkin & Popcorn

Orange Spice Popcorn

My last minute sweet treats for my lovely colleagues!

Yesterday was the last day at the office and it was one mad rush to get everything that needed doing, done.  We then headed off for our Christmas meal

I whipped these bags up the night before.  I normally make gingerbread as my ‘Christmas cards’ and I had made gingerbread dough but just didn’t have the energy to do all the rolling and cutting and baking required! Popcorn takes literal about half the time and effort!

Ingredients

Popcorn

I used about 2 cups of popcorn per person.  It’s easier to work in American cups than grams for this.  If your popping this yourself, 20 cups of popcorn is about 1 and a ¼ cups of popping corn. 

I popped my own by getting the biggest saucepan I own, adding just enough sunflower oil to cover the bottom and putting it over a high heat.  When the oil is hot, be careful, add enough popping corn to coat the bottom of the pan.  Put the lid on and wait.  As soon as it starts popping, turn it down to medium.  I have a ceramic hob so it retains heat for a stupidly long time.  I turn my hob off but if you’re using gas or have electric rings, just turn it down.  Shake the pan firmly when holding both the lid and the pan handle.  This will stop it burning.  When the popping has stopped, take it off the heat and tip out the popcorn.  Repeat until you have desired amount!

Coating

Per bag (2 cups of popcorn)

1 tbsp light brown sugar, 1/4tsp mixed spice, pinch of grated orange zest.

Tie up the bags and shake them really well.  It’s a good thing to tell the people you’re distributing it to, to also shake the bag before eating!