Its your own homemade holiday-spiced popcorn, and it pairs uncommonly well with hot chocolate and marshmallows.
Grab the nearest two-quart pot, and lets get poppin.
Unlike my strong feelings for great coffee, Im not a popcorn snob in the slightest.
I like it allpre-bagged, microwaved, air-popped, or kettle.
Recently, despite distinct memories of disliking this method, Ive returned to the classic stove-top pop.
I dont know what drove me away because Im quite enjoying myself.
Thats exactly what were doing with this recipe.
Youll see in the recipe I use both butter and cooking oil.
Alternatively, you could also use ghee which has a higher smoke point than butter.
Add salt, and all of the other spices.
Youll notice the smells of the spices become quite fragrant, and the butter might start to foam.
Dump the unpopped kernels into the pot all at once.
Cover the pot and give it a shake so all of the kernels get coated in oil.
Extra points if you get the spiced oil up on the inside of the lid.
Then crank the heat up to medium.
The oil has already heated up so the popcorn should start to pop within a minute.
Crack the lid when the pot is at rest to let steam escape.
Pour the popcorn into a bowl.
Any spices that did scorch actually clung to the pot instead of to the corn.
The flavor wont be as robust, but itll be wonderfully fragrant.
My popcorn turned out incredibly flavorful, buttery, and perfectly salted.
My whole apartment still smells like toasted gingerbread cookies and warm holiday spices even hours later.
It will get foamy and youll notice the fragrance become rather strong.
Add the popcorn kernels, cover the pot and turn the heat up to medium.
Shake the pot to coat the kernels with the infused fats.
Once the popcorn begins popping, shake the pot occasionally to coat the popped popcorn with more seasoned fat.
Take the popcorn off the heat when the popping slows down to one pop every three to five seconds.
Pour it into a bowl and enjoy immediately.
