Description
Christmas Crunch is a festive white chocolate popcorn treat combining crunchy popcorn, salty pretzels, colorful red and green M&Ms, and sweet vanilla candy melts. This easy-to-make snack is perfect for holiday gatherings and gift-giving, delivering a delightful mix of textures and flavors with a charming seasonal presentation.
Ingredients
Scale
Popcorn Mixture
- 1/2 cup popcorn kernels (104g)
- 1 1/2 cups broken pretzel pieces or baby pretzels (75g)
- 1 (10 oz) bag green and red Milk Chocolate or Mint M&Ms
Coating
- 1 (12 oz) bag Vanilla Candy Melts (such as Wilton Candy Melts)
- Christmas sprinkles (amount as desired)
Instructions
- Popcorn Preparation: Pop the popcorn kernels using a popcorn popper into a large bowl according to the manufacturer's directions, or use microwave popcorn bags as an alternative. Remove any unpopped kernels to avoid biting into hard pieces.
- Combine Mix-ins: Add the broken pretzel pieces and the green and red M&Ms to the popped popcorn and gently toss to combine evenly.
- Melt Candy Melts: Place the Vanilla Candy Melts in a microwave-safe bowl and heat at 50% power in 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval until the melts are fully melted and smooth.
- Coat Popcorn Mixture: Drizzle half of the melted vanilla candy melts over the popcorn mixture and gently toss a few times with a rubber spatula to start coating the mix-ins.
- Finish Coating: Drizzle the remaining melted candy melts over the popcorn mixture and gently stir just enough to evenly coat without overmixing to preserve space for sprinkles to stick.
- Decorate and Set: Spread the coated popcorn mixture in a single layer onto wax paper. Evenly sprinkle Christmas sprinkles over the top before the candy melts set. Allow the mixture to cool completely and harden.
- Serve or Store: Once hardened, gently break the popcorn into pieces. Store in an airtight container or fill treat bags for gifting.
Notes
- 1/2 cup popcorn kernels yields about 16 to 17 cups of popped popcorn.
- If you don’t have a popcorn popper, use the brown paper bag microwave popcorn method, or two bags of tender white popcorn work well.
- The original recipe used a 12 oz bag of M&Ms, but a 10 oz bag is suitable; you can add extra M&Ms from another bag if desired.
- To showcase pretzels and M&Ms without full coverage from chocolate, set aside one-quarter of each and sprinkle them on top along with the sprinkles before the chocolate sets.
- This recipe fills about 8 to 9 party treat bags (1/2"x4") filled two-thirds full, great for holiday gifting.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 150 kcal
- Sugar: 12 g
- Sodium: 150 mg
- Fat: 8 g
- Saturated Fat: 5 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 2 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 18 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
