Thursday, March 01, 2012

Homemade Microwave Popcorn

Erik and I are notorious for being evening snackers. We recognize this may not be the recommended time of day to stuff your face full of food, but nevertheless, when the kids are finally asleep in their beds we always seem to get the munchies. Our snack of choice is usually popcorn. I used to buy microwave popcorn by the case at Superstore, but in an effort to eat it less processed we started popping it the old-fashioned way - in our air-popper, which we were quite happy with.

Until yesterday.

Erik was chatting with a friend of ours the other day who also enjoys an evening popcorn ritual with his wife, except they make it in a paper bag in the microwave. It sounded interesting and we figured it was worth a try!

All you need is popcorn kernels, margarine or butter, salt (if it's sea salt - even better!) and a paper bag:


I put about a 1/2 cup of kernels in the bag with some generous shakes of sea salt and a big dollop of margarine (I'll probably have to perfect my ingredient quantities over time as I get more experienced)...

Then you fold the end of the bag over 2 times.


Microwave until there's about 3 seconds between pops. I started mine at 3 minutes and ended up stopping at just over 2 and a half minutes. Also, I laid my bag flat on its side in the microwave to start, but I'm not sure if that would matter.

Out came a full - albeit greasy-looking - bag of delicious popcorn.


After giving the bag a couple of shakes I poured it all into a bowl (instead of eating it from the damp bag). And it was REALLY good. The margarine and salt were evenly infused throughout the whole bowl of popcorn without leaving it feeling greasy.

Overall - a successful popcorn-popping method that just might be a snack-time game-changer for us!

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11 comments:

  1. kelly ens3/1/12, 1:58 PM

    awesome!!!! definitely going to try this :)

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  2. Elissa3/1/12, 2:23 PM

    oh I remember seeing this idea a while back and I've always wanted to try it! I think you can also do it with sea salt and a little olive oil if you want to cut out the margarine and make it less greasy. Gonna have to try it!!

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  3. Jen Glen3/1/12, 3:14 PM

    I saw this in an email Craig's mom sent me and was wanting to give it a try. I think I now will. (Just have to go get me some brown paper bags!)

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  4. Trev and Rebekah3/1/12, 8:51 PM

    I have a lot of paper bags I didn't know what to do with )except bring them when we finally move overseas to do crafts with. But popcorn is a favorite for my boys so we may have to try this one day.

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  5. Lindsay3/2/12, 11:05 AM

    Interesting!! I'm going to have to try that!

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  6. rachel joy3/3/12, 12:13 AM

    you have GOT to get a Whirly-Pop. (I blogged about the craze going on over here.) It will revolutionize your popcorn habit. A-may-zing! Did you have lots of kernels left over in the bag? We use 1/2 a cup to get a big Tupperware bowl full.

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  7. Jamie3/3/12, 7:18 AM

    I think I've seen the whirly-pop at a friends house (or something similar). It was GOOD popcorn. And yes, I did notice yesterday that I had a lot of leftover kernels, so maybe less than 1/2 cup would work better with the paper bag method.

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  8. Bonnie3/3/12, 6:45 PM

    We've been making it like this since we got to Thailand, seeing as we haven't found any air-popper machines here. And I agree... it makes the best popcorn! And its SO easy. Such a wonderful invention :)

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  9. Kelsie-Lynn3/3/12, 8:22 PM

    I think my plan to not snack in the evening has just be ruined ;) We LOVE popcorn and I am going to try this right now! Thanks for the great idea!

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  10. Melissa3/5/12, 6:54 PM

    Thanks for the tip - I am definitely going to try this!

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  11. Kim3/9/12, 12:00 PM

    Awesome tip. Thanks for posting it. I used it yesterday and it worked great! This is my new way of doing popcorn because I am a popcorn fiend as well.

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