Savory Popcorn for Mom

Mother’s Day is just days away and if you’re thinking about making her a treat, why not try something a little different like some savoury popcorn.

We’ve come up with a list of some recipes that can spice up the typical popcorn snack. You can make it for your mom as an appetizer snack, package some up as a gift, or serve it with an after dinner movie or some relaxing time with your mom.

I’m usually a plain butter and salt popcorn gal. Every so often I’ll make a batch of caramel popcorn (we blogged the recipe here a few years ago) as a treat. Today though we are focusing on the savoury type of popcorn with lots of flavour! Take a look at some of the recipes below and see if anything stands out and give it a go for your mom or just for fun.

All of these recipes are best on some freshly popped popcorn. The recipes will nicely coat about 12-16 cups of popped popcorn but you can cut down the recipes to however much you’d like to make.

Brown Butter Lemon – Cook 6 Tbsp. of butter in a pan until browned and then take the pan off the heat and add 1 ½ tsp. of lemon zest. Stir and pour over the popcorn. Toss with salt.

Garlic and Herb – Melt 4 Tbsp. of butter in a pan and add 4 cloves of grated garlic and a tsp. each of fresh finely cut rosemary, sage, thyme and Drizzle over the popcorn and toss with some salt and

cook for a minute.

Parmesan and Rosemary – Add ½ cup of grated Parmesan along with 3 Tbsp. of olive oil, 1 Tbsp. of fresh finely cut rosemary, and toss with salt.

Three Cheese – For this one you’re gonna want to make sure your popcorn is warm. Then toss in 2 cups of shredded cheddar, 1 cup of grated Parmesan, and a ½ cup of Pecorino. Spread it all on a baking sheet (lined is probably best) and bake it at 350 degrees until the cheddar melts. About 3 minutes. Keep an eye on it though!

Italian Cheese – Mix 6 Tbsp. grated Romano cheese, 2 ¼ tsp. of Italian seasoning, and ¾ tsp. of garlic salt.  

Sesame – Heat 6 Tbsp. of butter with 2/3 cup of sesame seeds and cook until the seeds are toasted (5 or so minutes). Stir in 1 Tbsp. of sugar and toss with some salt.

Sesame Ginger – Melt ¼ cup of butter and stir in ½ tsp. of sesame oil, a drip or two of soy sauce, and a pinch of ginger powder. Pour over the popcorn and toss well.

Bacon Chive – Cook up some chopped bacon bits (6 slices is fine but you can some extra because the more bacon the better!). Keep the drippings and drizzle 2 Tbsp. of that with the same amount of butter over the popcorn and then toss with the bacon, ½ cup chopped chives, and ½ tsp. of cayenne. Season with some salt but it might be salty enough with the bacon and drippings.

Sriracha Lime – Whisk 5 Tbsp. of melted butter with ¼ cup of  Sriracha , 1 ½ tsp. of lime zest, , and 1 Tbsp. of lime juice and drizzle over the popcorn. Toss with salt.  

Chipotle – Melt 4 Tbsp. of butter with 2 Tbsp. of Chipotle hot sauce, and 1 tbsp. of Chipotle chile powder. Drizzle over the popcorn and toss with salt and corn nuts.

Cajun – Melt 4 Tbsp. of butter with 1 Tbsp. of Cajun seasoning , 1 tsp. of lemon zest, ¼ tsp. of cayenne, and 2 chopped scallions. Drizzle over the popcorn and toss with salt.

Curry- Melt ¼ cup of butter add in 2 Tbsp. of curry powder and mix well. Add in a tsp. of salt and a Tbsp. of turbinado sugar pour over the popcorn and toss. You can add in some more sugar or salt while you toss.

Buffalo – Melt 6 Tbsp. of butter and mix in 1/3 cup of Buffalo sauce toss in your popcorn and mix well. Add in ½ cup of crumbled Blue cheese and some celery leaves. Toss with some salt.  

French Onion – Melt 6 Tbsp. of butter with a packet of French onion soup/dip mix and toss with warm popcorn. Sprinkle in a package of French fried onions.

Salt and Vinegar – Combine ¼ cup of malt vinegar with 2 tsp. of salt and pour into a clean spray bottle. Shake well to dissolve all of the salt and spray over the popcorn.

There you have it many ways that you can make your popcorn more interesting. You can even make small batches of a few and get your mom to do a taste test to see which she likes best. Pair you savoury popcorn with some nice wine or other cool beverage and enjoy. 

Pumpkin Cookies

Thanksgiving is near and we are talking about pumpkins today. In particular, baking/cooking with pumpkins.

I do love a good pumpkin pie with whipped cream, but we thought we’d try something a little different...pumpkin cookies with brown butter icing. In our search for things to bake with pumpkin, we found some other dishes/creations that you can use pumpkin in that I never would have thought of trying so you can give them a try if you’re adventurous.

Try Pumpkin chili, curry, superfood bars, risotto, oatmeal topping, tiramisu, pizza, brownies, ricotta stuffed shells, custard, salads, roasted onions, waffles, pancakes, stuffing, stir fry, pudding, ice cream pie, lasagna, relish, glaze for ham, margarita, bruschetta, dip, meatballs, grits, cornbread, chowder, Alfredo, fries, ravioli, burgers, hummus, grilled cheese, salsa, and spaghetti!

http://www.edsmith.com/en/recipes/?search=pumpkin

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/thanksgiving/photos/30-unique-ways-with-pumpkin/#!whole-pumpkin-pie-soup-recipe

http://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/g619/our-best-pumpkin-recipes-1008/?slide=57

Back to the cookies, I got distracted by things you can make with pumpkin, Nicole has made these before, so we are using the recipe that she has used in the past while adding in our own little touches. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

You will need:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin
• 1 cup plus 1 tbsp. evaporated milk, plus more if needed
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 4 cups icing sugar, sifted

How to:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. 

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a medium bowl; set aside.

Cream 12 Tbsp. of the butter and the brown sugar on medium speed in until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low. Add pumpkin, 3/4 cup evaporated milk, and 1 tsp. vanilla; mix well. Add flour mixture; mix until combined. 

So for this next step, we just used spoons to place the batter on the trays, but you can use a pastry bag to pipe the batter into 1 1/2-inch rounds. Using the pastry bag will get you a more precise nice looking cookie, but if you don’t care what they look like you can use the spoons and you’ll get a unique looking cookie.

Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until tops spring back, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.

To make the icing, put the icing sugar in a large bowl; set aside. Melt the remaining 10 Tbsp. butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until golden brown.

As soon as it’s brown, immediately add the butter to icing sugar, scraping any browned bits from sides and bottom of pan. Add remaining 5 Tbsp. evaporated milk and remaining 2 tsp. vanilla; stir until smooth. Spread the icing evenly on the cookies. If the icing stiffens, stir in more evaporated milk.