Leprecorn

Young and old alike are going to find this colorful popcorn a delight! The young, that is, if they can manage to get their hands on it, because, trust me when I tell you that it is addictive, and you won’t want to share. Employing the use of microwave popcorn, this goes together in a flash. It is colorful, tasty, and makes a perfect treat for St. Patrick’s Day. I like to put a colorful tin of it at each place setting of my traditional St. Patrick’s Day dinner.

Leprecorn

1 bag of microwave popcorn

1 cup mini pretzels
1 cup broken pecans
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 package Wilton candy melts, green

Pop popcorn according to microwave directions. When it is cool enough to handle, empty it out onto a sheet pan, spread it out, and pick through for unpopped kernels. You are not going to want to chomp down on one of those! Empty popcorn into a large mixing bowl, and add pretzels, pecans, and white chocolate chips. Melt candy melts in a microwave-safe bowl on high for 1-2 minutes, stirring at 30-second intervals until melted.  Pour over mixture, toss lightly to cover, and empty onto sheet pan to dry.

PRINT RECIPE

This post contains affiliate links.

Double Chocolate Bread Pudding

Not only does the Brioche bread that I made yesterday make excellent French toast, but it also makes a wonderful bread pudding.  You can use it in a recipe of your own, but here is one that I find particularly tasty because it is sweet and chocolaty without being cloyingly so. 


Double Chocolate Bread Pudding

1 3/4 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 cup white chocolate chips

¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups cubed brioche bread

Preheat oven to 325°F. Bring cream, 1/2 cup sugar, and milk to simmer in heavy medium saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Add 1 cup white chocolate chips and whisk until melted and smooth. Whisk egg and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in hot chocolate mixture. Cool chocolate custard 10 minutes, stirring often.

Add bread cubes and remaining 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips to custard and toss to coat. Transfer to 1 1/2-quart-capacity shallow oval baking dish. (I used two au gratin dishes.) Sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar over mixture. Bake until custard thickens and center is just set, about 50 minutes. Serve warm with a drizzle of melted chocolate, cream, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  


This post is linked to:

Totally Tasty Tuesdays

What's Cooking Wednesday

Foodie Friday

Sunday's Best Party

Sweets for a Saturday

Cast Party Wednesday

Show Me What Ya Got

Ritz Cracker Cookies and Cream & Health Bar Cookies

A good advertising campaign is one that we remember.  It's not the flash and dazzle, the talking dogs, the cute babies, or endearing old people.  It pretty much all boils down to a clever slogan that becomes burned into our brains.  One of the best slogans that I can recall was created back in the late seventies/early eighties and spoken by a trustworthy pitchman in the form of Andy Griffith.  We believed him when he said, "Everything tastes better when it sits on a Ritz."  We not only believed him, we remembered him, at least I did.  This is a slogan that I remember to this day, and do you know what?  It turned out to be true!  And this goes for both sweet and savory.  

After the great success I had with the Thin Mint Clones, I decided to continue to experiment and came up with two other recipes that are as least as good as the Mint Cookies, if not better (my husband swooned over the Cookies and Cream).  They are also ridiculously quick and easy.  I made both at the same time I was making a pot of mushroom soup. 

Cookies and Cream Cookies
 Total Time: 25 minutes
 Yield: 10-12 cookies

1 cup Ghirardelli white chocolate chips

1 teaspoon solid shortening (I used Crisco)

2 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed (I used Oreos)

10-12 Ritz crackers

1/4 cup Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

Melt white chocolate chips and shortening in a heat-resistant bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir in crushed cookies. Drop Ritz crackers, one at a time, into the warm mixture, turning to coat. Place on baking sheet to harden (you can expedite this by putting them into the refrigerator for about 5 minutes). After all crackers have been covered in the mixture and have been allowed to hardening, melt dark chocolate chips in a small bowl in the microwave. Using a small spoon, scoop up melted chocolate and drizzle it over the cookies in a back and forth motion.

I made the Heath cookies first and used the extra chocolate to drizzle over the Cookies & Cream.

Heath Bar Cookies

Total Time: 15 minutes
 Yield: 10-12 cookies

1 cup Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips

10-12 Ritz crackers

1/4 cup Heath brand brickle chips

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

Melt milk chocolate chips in a heat-resistant bowl set over a pan of simmering water. When melted and creamy, drop Ritz crackers, one at a time, into the warm mixture, turning to coat. Place on baking sheet.  While chocolate is still warm, generously sprinkle Heath bits over the tops to cover.  Allow to harden (you can expedite this by putting them into the refrigerator for about 5 minutes). 

This is linked to:

White Chocolate Popcorn

Quite a number of years ago when my cousin moved his wife and family across the State from St. Louis to Kansas City we missed seeing them at Christmas. It was the first time we'd not been together at the holidays in more than a decade. We'd agreed not to exchange gifts as the logistics of sending so many packages back and forth through the mail seemed daunting. But instead of sending each person a gift, Barbara (my cousin's wife) sent each family a tin of popcorn. It was a nice gesture, we all thought, as we opened up the tin and stared at it . My youngest son peered at it over my shoulder and poked it with disinterest. Popcorn. Huh. And then one of us, I don't remember which one, decided to give it a taste. "Ummmmmmm," he said. Ummmm? Well, let's all try it, shall we? And we did. My guess is that it took no longer than 15 minutes for the entire tin to be consumed. (In our defense, we're talking a cookie-size tin, and not one of those whopping big multi-gallon size tins you might get from the Popcorn Factory or some carnival supply company). Yes, it was that good. There was something about the combination of salty and sweet that had us shoveling it into our mouths so quickly that I think some of us forgot to breathe.

The next day, under the guise of thanking her for the popcorn and wishing her the best for the holiday season I weaseled the recipe out of her. It is unbelievably simple, whips up in no time, and you probably have everything in your pantry at the moment. If not, don't worry. You can substitute almonds for the pecans, you can use any type or size of pretzel, just break them up if they're the big ones. Any brand of microwave popcorn will do (As you can see I used the low-cal popcorn, and yes, I'm aware of the irony of using the 100-calorie packs and then coating them with chocolate.), just be sure (and I cannot stress this enough!) that you carefully pick through the popcorn to get all of the unpopped kernels out before coating it with the chocolate or your medley will seem as though one of the main ingredients is pea gravel -- don't ask me how I know this.

Package and label any way you see fit, but I find these clear bags that allow the recipient to see what you're giving them to be the best.

It makes a great gift, bagged up and tagged with a label, greeting, and the recipe.  The amounts of ingredients listed are really up to you and your own personal taste.  Just know that the better quality the ingredients, the tastier the end product.  I used Ghirardelli white chocolate chips because they seem to melt better for me than any other brand.  Now go get popping!

White Chocolate Popcorn Medley

(Printable Recipe)

1 12-oz. package white chocolate chips, melted

2 bags microwave popcorn

2 cups mini pretzels

1 cup pecans, toasted

Prepare popcorn according to package directions. Mix popcorn, pretzels, and nuts in a very large bowl. Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave and pour over ingredients in bowl. Stir well. 

Put the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

Pour melted chocolate over all and stir until mixture is well coated.

To make the mixture a bit more festive for the holidays I added a few shakes of red sugar.

This is linked to:

Tasty Tuesdays

Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods

Hearth and Soul

Food on Friday