After recently switching over to a vegan diet and cutting out all cocoa solids the only “chocolate” left in my life is cocoa. While there is one great recipe for chocolate muffins I’ve been using (more on that later) I’ve missed being able to just have a quick little piece of chocolate that is ready when I want it – mostly while sitting in front of the tele! So I’ve started experimenting with popcorn. I’ve got an old school air popper so it’s a breeze to make the popcorn itself but now I can make it sweet when I want.
First up was a salted vegan caramel – YUM!
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup maple or brown rice syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tbsp salt
Melt it on the stove til it bubbles and then just drizzle it over the popcorn while mixing. It tastes absolutely amazing and while it does look like a ton of sugar, and it is, there is the same amount of sugar is a couple biscuits from the shop as well so don’t feel too bad. This works for about a cup of popcorn – so it’s really a party sized bowl – you can make it in smaller portions as well. If you’re not familiar with cups as a measurement just pick a small glass and use that, a little smaller than a whiskey glass, or about a half a tea cup.
So now to get some chocolate flavour in there! You can use the same recipe as above but with an added tbsp of cocoa and minus the salt. You can also use marshmallow or marshmallow fluff (now available at morrisons!)
- 3/4 c marshmallow fluff
- 1/4 c soy milk
- 1 tbsp cocoa
Melt it on the stove and drizzle over popcorn while stirring. Gooey and chocolatey and lovely! And way less bad for you than a chocolate bar!