Old Fashioned Pink Popcorn

HAPPY EARLY VALENTINE'S DAY FOLKS!

I wanted to post this tomorrow but I was just too excited to wait. So you get an early V-Day gift.

You're welcome!

As you know I have been on a popcorn kick of epic proportions lately. I have two more saved up to show you. There's Turtle Popcorn, then Turtle Popcorn Gone Wild. It was too good not to Lunatic it. I mean Turtle Popcorn is awesome, but Kim it up a bit and it's popcorn gone wild for sure. Cannot wait to show them to you. One will go up tonight then the other the night after that. In the meantime you can look at my Chocolate Cake Popcorn or just sit and stare at this Pink Candy Popcorn all day. It's so purty! It makes me all happy! And a happy Lunatic is a good thing for everyone.

Okay so I was perusing popcorn the other night as I was not happy with a recipe I got out of a cookbook for one of the popcorns.  I happened upon this little beauty. I swear to all that is pink I fell in love immediately. This brings back memories for me folks. Big time. You see I am a Canuck, through and through, (except for the hockey, cuz I hate it, me and Canada agree to disagree on this one) and as a Canuck I grew up eating Lucky Elephant Pink Candy Popcorn. This stuff was such a treat. Always being a pink girl I used to love eating this stuff.

Photo Source: Google

If you have never had it you are missing out folks. A gazillion times better than caramel corn. I mean it's flipping PINK! I searched for a recipe close enough to it and found one at Nan's Recipe Spot. There are tons of pink popcorn recipes out there but this is the one that drew my eye and I loved reading about her memories of it. So instead of using a source with no emotional attachment to the popcorn I chose to use one that had a personal story behind it. So huge thank you to Nan for the inspiration and the story behind your popcorn.

Speaking of personal stories may I just tell you I abhor Valentine's Day. It is so crazy how much the retail industry milks it. So dudes let me just tell you a secret, your wife or girlfriend could care less about a grand gesture, or jewelry. She wants you to do the dishes, or take the dog for a walk, or help the kids do homework for a day so she can do one of the other gazillion things she does in a day. Take her out for dinner, or make her dinner. That's the stuff most of us ladies want. Do not give us a ring or necklace or any other item your secretary or mom or the lady who flirted with you at the jewelry store to get a commission picked out for you. That's not romance! If you genuinely pick something out yourself great. But if not forgo the fancy gesture and make some spaghetti and put the kids to bed after reading them a bed time story. That'll score points and maybe you'll get lucky tonight. If not pop a batch of this and watch some hockey on TV!

Old Fashioned Pink Popcorn:

Source: Nan's Recipe Spot

Ingredients:

12 cups popped popcorn (the original calls for 6 quarts but I wanted less popcorn, more candy)
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 to 3 small drops of red food coloring (do not use gel, my first batch was too dark from it, I prefer the liquid for this particular recipe. Go light and work from there.)

Directions:

Pop up your popcorn. I did mine on the stove old school style. Which for those of you who only do microwave popcorn means you pour some oil in a large stock pot, let the oil get hot, then place popcorn kernels in the bottom and cover with a lid. Then you wait for the magic to happen. Swish the pot around from time to time to keep things from burning and do not go too hot. You want a medium heat or you'll scorch it.

Set popcorn aside.

In a saucepan combine your sugar, milk, corn syrup and salt. Cook over medium heat until your sugar dissolves.

Now you want it at a low boil until the temperature reaches 230 degrees which is known as soft ball stage. If you do not have a thermometer you can grab a glass of super cold water, drop a little of the mixture in it, now grab that mixture with your fingers and if it forms a ball in the water then flattens out after it's out of the water that is soft ball stage. You can probably find videos of this online if you aren't quite sure what this all means.

Stir occasionally until it reaches soft ball stage and then remove from heat, and add your vanilla and food coloring. Stir well.

Now put your popcorn in a large bowl or even a big roasting pan. You want to have ample room to stir it really well.

Now pour your pink mixture over top and stir well to coat.

Now line a cookie sheet with parchment and transfer the popcorn to that to let it dry out.

Try not to eat a boatload while waiting for it to cool. Impossible, trust me!

Serve with a big old pink grin!

Tips and Hints:

I did half the amount of popcorn so feel free to use the original amount.

I did double the corn syrup but feel free to adjust.

I used normal corn syrup not white. Never seen white.



I ate a ton of it, you do not have to, unless you want to, then it's totally cool!

This stuff is so pretty. And delicious. And I have to say the unedited pictures win over the edited versions for me. Here's a collage of edited ones below where they auto correct the color. I did not care for them. Nice from a photography angle but the unedited pics depict the popcorn as it truly looks.

I hope all my lovely readers have a pinktastic Valentine's Day! I hope you are pinking happy! And I hope you all enjoy your pinkarific day with your loved ones. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY LUNATICS!

Sneak peek at the next post, Turtle Popcorn:

Toodles and smoochies. xx