I bought a couple of packs of microwave popcorn the other week, and have never got round to eating them. So one evening I decided to see if I could use popcorn in a cake or cookie to take to work, and I found this recipe for popcorn chocolate chip cookies!
It all starts with popcorn! I’ve never made microwave popcorn so this was kinda fun. The bag was too wide for the microwave… so until it puffed up there wasn’t much rotation… but I seemed to get away with it!
I wasn’t surprised to see that there were unpopped kernels… always the way, eh? The popcorn is chilli flavoured, although the chilli heat doesn’t kick in until very late in the eating.
After converting from US (and deciding to go with baking powder over bicarbonate of (baking) soda as I couldn’t see what the bicarb would react with), it’s a pretty standard biscuit (cookie).
Cream butter with sugars, and beat in egg and vanilla extract.
Add flour , baking powder and salt.
Mix in chocolate chips and popcorn by hand.
Then… well if I had the medium size cookie scoop on my Amazon wish list (hint hint :P) I would have used that, but I had to get all sticky and make balls with my hand.
I flattened them a bit with wet fingers before cooking. Then it’s 160c fan for about 13 minutes for me, until the edges just start to look like they’re changing colour.
Then it’s on to a cooling rack before testing!
They’re… odd. The initial texture and taste is a weird caramel crunchiness… then the chilli kicks in late (which was the same with the popcorn on its own). I won’t do them again… but it was a fun experiment to try!
Tl;dr
1 bag of microwave chili popcorn
115g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
100g light brown sugar, packed
75g golden caster sugar
1 medium egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
155g all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
100g dark chocolate chunks
Cream butter & sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla extract.
Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and beat on low until just combined.
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and use a spatula to fold in the popcorn & chocolate chunks.
Scoop dough by the heaping tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 11-14 minutes at 160c fan (until the edges and tops are golden brown).
Remove from the oven, allow to rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Bulmer Food 