Peppermint White Chocolate Popcorn

This peppermint white chocolate popcorn is incredibly easy and only needs 3 ingredients! It’s a perfect holiday gift or snack. Peppermint popcorn is irresistible! 

It’s been way too long since I had another popcorn recipe on the blog! I recently saw a variety of fun holiday flavoured popcorns at the store and it inspired me to make my own peppermint candy version. Also, my youngest, Harriet, devoured an entire bag of the store bought version so I thought I better give my wallet a break and try a homemade recipe.

If you’re a fan of peppermint and white chocolate (who isn’t), you’ll love this simple recipe. It also gets to find a home as another 3 ingredient recipe on the blog! And we all need easy recipes over the holidays, right? I have only done one cookie recipe so far and we’re nearing the middle of December!

Ingredients for Peppermint White Chocolate Popcorn

As I mentioned, you only need 3 simple ingredients for this recipe! You’ll need:

• Popcorn. I love to use my Whirley Pop for our popcorn, but you can use air popped popcorn or even just buy regular popcorn. For this recipe my popcorn is not salted, but you could use a lightly salted popcorn! I would avoid an extra buttery microwave popcorn.
• White Chocolate. White chocolate chips work great, but you can also use white chocolate candy melts.
• Peppermint Candy Canes. I love the look of the green and red white striped candy canes, but feel free to use only the red peppermint candy canes or even have some fun with different flavoured candy canes!

How to Make Peppermint Popcorn

1. If you don’t have popcorn popped already, pop the popcorn so you have about 10-12 cups. If you’re popping from kernels, this is about 1/2 cup kernels. Remove any obvious burnt pieces or any un-popped seeds you see. Place the popcorn in a large mixing bowl.

2. Place the candy canes in a large freezer bag and use a hammer or rolling pin to crush the candy cane into very fine pieces. Alternatively, you could use a food processor to do this! The size of the candy cane pieces is up to you – you may want a very fine dust-like powder or a few chunky pieces. Personally, I like a little bit of crunch!

3. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the white chocolate chips for 40 seconds on high, before removing them and stirring until completely smooth. You could also use a double boiler for this! White chocolate can seize up if you’re not careful, so as soon as it’s melty and smooth, it’s time to use it.

Tip: For EXTRA drizzly and smooth white chocolate, add a teaspoon of coconut oil to the chocolate before placing it in the microwave.

4. Drizzle half of the chocolate all over the popcorn in the mixing bowl, then use a large wooden spoon to toss it all together. Stir gently, trying not to break any pieces of popcorn. Drizzle the remaining white chocolate over the popcorn, followed by half of the crushed up candy canes, and stir to combine again.

5. Empty the contents of the bowl on to a wax-paper lined baking sheet, spreading the popcorn out evenly. Immediately sprinkle the remaining crushed up candy canes over the popcorn. You can also add some red sanding sugar to the mix if you want the popcorn to be extra sparkly and bright! Let the popcorn sit for at least 20 minutes to ensure the chocolate is fully hardened before storing in an airtight container.

Storing White Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn

Once the chocolate is no longer soft and melty, about 20 minutes, you can pack the popcorn to store. This is a perfect holiday gift for a neighbour or friend, and a pretty way to package the popcorn is to use clear cellophane baggies, with a colourful ribbon! If you store the peppermint white chocolate popcorn this way, it will stay fresh for up to a week.

You can also use airtight container or pretty Christmas tins and expect it to stay fresh for up to a week. The more airtight the container is, the better. You can actually get some really cute holiday containers too that are super functional in terms of keeping things airtight!

Tips and Tricks

• Use store-bought popcorn to skip the step of making the popcorn from scratch. Look for “lightly salted” and no butter flavour.
• Pick through the popcorn before you add the chocolate to look for any hard un-popped kernels that might hurt someone’s tooth!
• Add a teaspoon of coconut oil to the white chocolate before melting it to make it very drizzly and smooth.
• Be sure to work quickly once the chocolate is melted, adding it to the popcorn quickly and adding the crushed candy canes. This will ensure the chocolate doesn’t harden before everything is evenly coated and the candy canes can stick to the popcorn!
• Double the batch easily by using an extra large mixing bowl or working in two batches.

Similar Recipes From The Blog:

Whether you’re a popcorn lover or peppermint lover, here’s a few other recipes from the blog to consider:

• healthy caramel popcorn
• black and white popcorn
• healthy popcorn balls
• peppermint vodka cocktail
• peppermint chocolate tart

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