My mum always used to make us popcorn when I was growing up. Not only was it a treat that my brothers and I loved, but also my friends as it was a firm favourite on a sleepover!
But we're not talking microwave packets. We're talking popcorn kernels, popped in the pan, starting off slow then going mental. It's so easy to make from scratch yet so exciting, tasty & cheap!
Obviously you can tweak this recipe as you like but this is the most recent version I made & it was ruddy lush. I used a vegan butter that I use & love but do your thing with marg or butter.
I get intimidated by recipes that are exact so you'll find that this is a lot more fly by the seam of your pants!
To make a sizeable bowl of popcorn as shown above you'll need:
- Glug of Mellow Yellow Rapeseed oil
- Handful of popcorn / enough to cover the base of your pan (you don't want more than one layer as it's more likely to burn in parts).
- 1 large tablespoon of naturli organic vegan butter
- 2 tablespoons of organic golden caster sugar (raw cane/dark brown sugar would work melt to give a more treacle like taste
- 2 tablespoons of organic agave syrup
- Sprinkling of organic ground cinnamon
You'll need a big bowl for the finished product and a medium pan WITH A LID!
LET'S GET POPPING!
Pop the pan on a medium heat & add the oil. Gently swoosh the oil around the pan so the bottom is covered.
* Make sure that you have your pan lid to hand! *
When the oil starts to smoke, add your popcorn kernels to the pan & pop the lid on straight away.
Gently shake the pan whilst keeping your hand on the lid. You need to keep the corn kernels moving so that they don't burn.
Shortly you'll start to hear one or two pop! Wahoooo! Don't be tempted to take the lid off the pan or you'll be chasing popcorn around the kitchen!
Keep shaking the pan so the popcorn can cook evenly so that the heavy unpopped corns can stay at the bottom closest the to heat... to pop!
Once the popping has died down, take the pan off the heat and move it onto a cool ring so that it doesn't burn. Tip the popcorn into a bowl & if you need to rinse out the flaky bits, give it a quick rinse but be careful as it'll be really hot & will spit.
If it's still hot, pop the pan on the hob & add the butter. It'll gently melt in the residual heat. You could just tip the melted butter and sugar onto the popcorn if you want the texture of the sugar.
If you want the toffee popcorn, then add the sugar & agave syrup.
Turn on the heat & blend everything together by continually stirring for 30 seconds. I think that one of the reasons this popcorn was so ace this time was because it let it get hotter than i normally would so it was bubbling away.
Once it's bubbled, take it off the heat, stir to make sure that it's mixed, then gently pour over your popped corn, continuously stirring to coat it all. No one needs dry popcorn!
Sprinkle over the cinnamon or leave it if it's not your jam! Tip it into the bowl. Then shove your face in it... or if you can resist, eat it politely a piece at a time.
This was quite a lot for me but I did it in one film intro... you could probably share among 4 people, if you're more sensible than I!
& there you have it... homemade organic vegan, gluten free (depending on what butter you use so make sure you check) toffee popcorn. Other than the butter, all available for refill from Food for Thought.
Enjoy!
Kerry
