Sweet Popcorn Crunch (Frugal Food Thursday)

Welcome to Frugal Food Thursday!  If you have a great frugal recipe, please link up below! 

These recipes are also listed at these wonderful linkup parties - thank you to all the hosts for allowing me to link up!

Thanks to the folks at JOLLY TIME for providing the popcorn for this recipe!

My 8-year-old daughter loves to cook, so for her summer reading, she checked out some cookbooks from the children's nonfiction section of the library.  She loves to look at the photos and read the recipes, and she learns lots of new vocabulary from them.  And she loves to try cooking some of the recipes with me.

She found a recipe for Popcorn Crunch in one of the cookbooks, You Can Cook by Annabel Karmel.

We love to eat popcorn here at the Frugal Follies household!  It's the perfect snack - yummy and filling, yet healthy and cheap!  So I thought this would be a great recipe to try.

Plus, we could try out the new JOLLY TIME Pop Corn made with Smart Balance while making the recipe!

The new JOLLY TIME Butter Microwave Pop Corn is made with the Smart Balance patented blend of oils that help support heart health, as well as their exclusive natural ButterCrisp flavor. Every handful of perfectly crisp, 100% whole grain kernels packs mouth-watering, melted buttery goodness with zero grams of trans fat and zero hydrogenated oil.

And JOLLY TIME has a great giveaway going on right now. Join JOLLY TIME Pop Corn and Smart Balance over the next month on a quest to nurture healthier lifestyles through exercise, rest, diet, and community. Like the JOLLY TIME Facebook page and enter each week for a chance to win a fun and healthful prize pack or one of 75 free coupons.

Making the popcorn crunch was simple enough for a child to make, yet made a great snack!

First, we popped the popcorn - I used the JOLLY TIME Butter Light with Smart Balance:

Then, we put butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup in a large pot and melted them over medium heat.  I stood by to watch her as she stirred the ingredients.

She added the popcorn to the pot and stirred until all of the pieces were covered in the sauce.

Then we spread the popcorn onto a baking sheet.

After baking for 25 minutes and allowing to cool a little, the popcorn crunch was ready to eat!  Everyone gobbled it up.  I was able to save a little for my husband... but just a little.

This recipe was easy to make, and I think it would make a great teacher's gift!  Make a batch and store it in a fancy bag.  Or try other flavorings and give an assortment in a decorative tin.

Here's the complete recipe:

SWEET POPCORN CRUNCH
based on a recipe from You Can Cook by Annabel Karmel

1 bag JOLLY TIME Butter Light with Smart Balance popcorn or 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 tbsp maple sugar
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Pop corn according to package directions or according the air popper directions.  In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup.  Add the pinch of salt and mix well.  Add the popped popcorn to the the pot and stir until all of the popcorn is covered.  Spread the popcorn on a large baking sheet.  Bake at 300 degrees for 25-30 minutes, stirring halfway through.  Allow to cool before eating.

There are lots more easy and cheap recipes posted here at Frugal Follies.  Click here for the list!

Got a great frugal recipe?  Link below to your actual post, not your main page.  Please only link up recipes and other food-related posts. I'd appreciate it if you would link back to Frugal Food Thursday as well! If you have a linkup party that you'd like me to know about, please leave a comment below.





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