3 Patriotic Popcorn Recipes

My family loves popcorn. We make it several times a month, it’s a Sunday night staple. We have tried lots of different popcorn recipes over the years and today I’m going to share 3 of our favorite patriotic popcorn recipes.

Fruity Fourth of July Popcorn
Adapted from Fruity Candy Popcorn – Our Best Bites

The reasons I love this first recipe are that it makes enough popcorn for a small army (which is perfect for a holiday weekend spent with family and friends), it’s not messy (no melting chocolate here) and it’s reminds me of the Jell-o popcorn balls my best friend’s Mom would make for her birthday parties. Oh, and did I mention it’s inexpensive too!

Ingredients
24 cups of air popped popcorn
½ cup butter
6 T light corn syrup
1 cup sugar
3 oz box of cherry and berry blue Jell-o
Red and blue gel food coloring-optional

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place 8 cups of popped popcorn in a bowl and set aside (this will be the white popcorn). Place 8 cups popped popcorn in another bowl (this will be the blue popcorn).
Put ¼ cup butter and 3 Tablespoons corn syrup in a sauce pan and stir over medium heat. Stir until butter melts. Add ½ cup sugar and the Berry Blue Jell-o (optional: add gel food coloring now if you want a darker more intense color) and stir until dissolved. Increase the heat until the mixture is boiling. Reduce heat and let Jell-o mixture simmer for 5 minutes while stirring regularly.
Remove from heat and pour over reserved popcorn. Stir immediately until all of the popcorn is evenly coated with Jell-o mixture. Pour popcorn onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Spread it out into an even layer and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. When popcorn is cool enough, break it up into pieces.
Repeat the process, using the last 8 cups of popcorn, ¼ cup butter, 3 Tablespoons corn syrup, ½ cup sugar, Cherry Jell-o and red gel food coloring (optional).

After baking for 10 minutes, break up popcorn into small pieces and combine the red (cherry), white (plain) and blue (berry) together.

The pop of flavors, vibrant colors and crunchiness make this a great snack for 4th of July parades and fireworks.

Red, White Chocolate and Blue Popcorn

This popcorn recipe is great for those who love white chocolate popcorn and it’s seriously simple.
If you’ve never used Wilton Candy Melts, they are discs of melting chocolate. I like them because they come in every color imaginable and they melt super easy in the microwave.

Ingredients
10 cups popped popcorn
12 oz white Wilton Candy Melts
3-6 oz red Wilton Candy Melts
3-6 oz blue Wilton Candy Melts

Put 10 cups popped popcorn in a bowl and set aside. Pour the whole bag (12 oz) of white Wilton Candy Melts into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and microwave again for 30 seconds, repeat until the white chocolate is completely melted.
Pour melted white chocolate over popcorn and stir popcorn until it is evenly coated.

Pour ¼ to ½ of the bag of blue candy melts into a microwave safe bowl and microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each time. Do the same with the red candy melts.
Dip a spoon into the melted candy melts and drizzle the melted red and blue across the white chocolate popcorn. There is no right or wrong way to do this, so don’t stress out!
Cool completely and break into small pieces. (If it’s a hot day, you may want to freeze the popcorn for 5 minutes before breaking it up with your hands.) This Red, White Chocolate and Blue popcorn is best eaten the same day it’s made.

Patriotic Party Popcorn
Adapted from M&M’s Candy Popcorn – Frugal Living Mom

This might be my favorite of the three. It’s ooey gooey, marshmallowy goodness with Peanut M&M’s. It’s soft, but doesn’t stick to your fingers and it’s so festive! If you like Rice Krispie Treats, then you’ll like this recipe too.
Ingredients
4 Tablespoons butter
1-10 oz bag miniature marshmallows
8 cups air popped popcorn
6 oz Peanut M&M’s (I found red, white and blue at target or you could get a large bag and just separate the red and blue M&M’s.)
Red, white and blue sprinkles

Line a large cookie sheet with foil and spray the foil with butter cooking spray. Put 8 cups of popped popcorn in a large bowl and set aside. In a large pan, melt butter. Add marshmallows over medium low heat, stirring constantly until they are just barely all melted. Pour the marshmallow mixture over the popped popcorn and stir until the popcorn is completely coated. Pour popcorn out onto foil lined cookie sheet. Working quickly, spray the back of a metal spoon and spread out the popcorn mixture.
Immediately add Peanut M&M’s and sprinkles and press them down so that they stick to the popcorn. When the popcorn is cool, pull it apart into bite size pieces and enjoy the same day.
**A few tips**
You will want to use “white” popcorn kernels for these recipes. This way you don’t end up with red, YELLOW and blue popcorn!

If you don’t own a hot air popcorn popper, you can use a “white” microwave popcorn. They are a bit tricky to find but Orville Redenbacher has a good one called “Tender White”. This popcorn has some butter and salt but it completely white. The butter and salt will alter the final result slightly but if you like salty and sweet, then you may prefer this option.

Be sure to remove all unpopped popcorn kernels so that you don’t bite down into your yummy popcorn and break a tooth! Check out this great tip from Utah blogger, Ashlee Marie.