Spiced Butter Is the Key to This Holiday Popcorn.
I hate to tear you away from your tin of mass-produced three-flavor popcorn, but there’s even more delicious popcorn you can snuggle up with on your couch. This is homemade holiday-spiced popcorn that pairs incredibly well with hot chocolate and marshmallows. This recipe uses common pantry spices and if you’ve ever baked pumpkin pie, I’m guessing you already have them. Grab the nearest two-liter saucepan and let’s drink.
Contrary to my strong passion for great coffee, I’m not a popcorn snob in the slightest. I like it all – bagged, microwaved, air-cooked, or kettle-cooked. Recently, despite clear memories of disliking this method, I returned to the classic stovetop method. I don’t know what turned me off because I really like it. Not only does the sound of the beans exploding make me smile every time, but there is more freedom with flavoring. You can add hot or savory sauces to the butter after the popcorn stops popping, or you can flavor the real fat you use to reheat the kernels. That’s exactly what we do with this recipe.
How to flavor vegetable oil
Before adding the unpopped kernels to the fat in the pan, first add the spices to let them steep. This is a technique commonly used in Indian cooking called tadka (also called tarka, chhonk, baghar and other names depending on the region or called tempering spices). You add whole or ground spices to butter or ghee and let it heat up and “bloom.” This can soften the strong notes of the raw spices while allowing the toasted spice flavor to infuse the oil. If you are using whole spices, large chunks can be removed to leave a thin, flavorful fat. The ground spices remain dispersed in the infused oil, resulting in a rich dish, in this case popcorn.
How to Make Holiday Spice Popcorn
To prepare the holiday cheer, add the fats to a medium to large saucepan and place over low heat. In the recipe you will see that I use both butter and vegetable oil. I like the taste of butter more than just butter, but adding a little canola oil raises the smoke point so my butter doesn’t burn. Alternatively, you can also use ghee, which has a higher smoke point than butter. Add salt and all other spices. Swirl the pan to moisten all the spices and let them cook over medium-low heat for 20 seconds to 1 minute, depending on how hot the oil gets. You will notice that the spice smells will become very aromatic and the oil may begin to foam.
Immediately pour the unpopped grains into the pan. Cover the pan and shake it to coat all the grains with oil. Extra points if you apply the spice oil to the inside of the lid. Then increase the heat to medium. The oil is already hot, so the popcorn should start popping within a minute. Shake the pan occasionally as the kernels pop, just to make sure the spicy fat coats the kernels. Open the lid slightly when the pan is at rest to release steam. Remove the pan from the heat once the popcorn has slowed significantly and the pan is almost full of spice-coated popcorn. Place popcorn in a bowl.
If you are using ground spices as in the recipe, it is best to increase the heat when you add the popcorn and remove the kernels as quickly as possible to reduce the burning of spices stuck to the bottom of the pan. When I popped the popcorn, the last five or six pieces of popcorn had overly toasted spiced areas on the bottom. Any burnt spices actually stuck to the pan and not to the corn.
If you want to avoid the spices burning (I wasn’t bothered by this), I suggest infusing the oil using the same method, but using whole spices instead (like broken cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and cardamom pods). Then remove the spices and you’re left with a flavorful fat that you can use to pop popcorn or save it to drizzle on after popping. The flavor won’t be as strong, but will be wonderfully flavorful. My popcorn was incredibly flavorful, buttery, and perfectly salted. My entire apartment still smells of toasted gingerbread and warm holiday spices, even hours later.
Holiday Spice Popcorn Recipe
Ingredients:
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1 ½ tablespoons butter
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1 tablespoon canola oil
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½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
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¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
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¼ teaspoon ground cloves
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¼ teaspoon ground allspice
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½ teaspoon salt
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¼ cup unpopped popcorn kernels
Heat the butter, oil, salt and spices for about 1 minute over medium-low heat to infuse the butter. It will start to foam and you will notice that the aroma is quite strong. Add the popcorn kernels, cover the pot and increase the heat to medium. Shake the pan to coat the kernels with the infused fat. Once the popcorn begins to pop, shake the pan occasionally to coat the popcorn with more of the seasoned fat. Remove the popcorn from the heat when the popping reduces to one pop every three to five seconds. Pour it into a bowl and enjoy immediately.