Mini Monster Cookies and Draw A Monster Game

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a literacy workshop organized by the St. Nick’s Alliance of Brooklyn.  The event was held at Junior High School 126 and was made possible by the Brooke Jackman Foundation which works to improve literacy among the city’s at-risk students.  The children I worked with ranged from grades 3-5.  They had been participating in the program after school for 8 weeks, and the night I came to speak was the night of their graduation from the program.

I read (actually I sang it!  lol) Hush Little Monster to them and talked about the process of making the book.  I spoke about how revising and editing both the text and the pictures was a big part of the process.  For example, originally, it was supposed to be a Halloween book.  Then the publisher decided to change it to a good-night picture book.  So we had to change the ending which originally read: “So scream little monster, small and green, for tonight is Halloween!”

Now the ending reads: “So hush, Little Monster, not a peep!  The sun is coming out; now it’s time to sleep.”

After some Q and A, we all did an activity I created called Draw A Monster Game.  I made three sets of colored cards with different characteristics pasted on top.  Pink cards have general shape words (e.g. big, tall, hairy, etc.), Green cards have characteristics (e.g. antennae, fangs, wings, etc.), and Yellow cards have emotions (e.g. sad, happy, shy, etc.).

Each student chose one Pink card, two Green cards, and one Yellow card and used those to create a monster.  I brought a ton of art supplies, ranging from pens and crayons and markers, to collage materials, such as sequins, glitter, feathers, dried pasta, yarn, etc.  Some parents and the teenage counselors also wanted to take part!  It was so cute to see this one “tough” guy in his early 20s with long sideburns, a brooding look and tattoos very meticulously put glue in spindly monster legs and carefully dust with glitter.  I wish I had taken photos, but I was so busy running around helping students and talking to people, it didn’t even occur to me!

This is the monster I created as a demo.  I got the cards “fat”, “three eyes”, “horns”, and “happy” for my words.

After the students created their monsters, they filled out a Monster Fact Sheet and wrote about their characters.   I have to say, the Monster Fact Sheet was my son, Jamie’s idea.  Before the event when I was trying to create an activity that went with the story, I ran it by him, and he suggested having the fact sheet!  He even wrote one up for me on his own and insisted I use it, so I did.  I typed it up and added one or two lines, but that’s it.  So proud of my guy!

Everyone loved the drawing game.  It is really fun to play.  And all the monsters are SO different!  All the children wanted to share them with the group.  The stories they came up with were priceless.  One girl drew a zombie cat monster who lived in “the pet cemetery in the sky”.  Its favorite food is “bacon in the sky — which is ‘flying bacon'”.  I love it!

For the graduation, the kids were presented with  a backpack filled with books, including a signed copy of Hush Little Monster, and I passed out my mini monster cookies.  These cookies appear in the book:

Note monster mom carrying tray of wormy cookies.

I developed this recipe for the book launch last year.  But for this event, I revised the recipe to accommodate a large group.  I doubled the amounts, omitted the peanut butter chips due to peanut allergies, and I made them a lot smaller.  I ended up with over 80 cookies!  I only had 11 gummy worms, however.  It worked out though, because the gummies were pretty big. I cut each one into tiny pieces.

And added one or two worm piece to each cookie as they came out of the oven.  If you can’t get the gummy worm to stick as the cookies cool down, just zap the worm on the cookie  in the microwave for about 10 seconds and they will soften and adhere to the cookie.

If you’d like to try playing the game, all the elements (instructions, card words, fact sheet) can be found here at my NEWLY UPDATED WEBSITE!   View my work, see my books, and check out the other fun freebies and craft and cooking ideas for kids I have there.  Please take a look and let me know what you think— I’d love to hear from you!

Mini Monster Cookies

adapted from Everything But the Kitchen Sink Cookies from The Cookiepedia

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1/2 egg white (I used 3/4 tablespoon liquid whites)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup mixture of chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and dried coconut

1 cup potato chips and pretzels broken into pieces

About 6 gummy worms cut into small pieces

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.  Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.  Add vanilla and eggs. Mix to incorporate, scraping down sides of bowl.

3.  Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in another bowl.

Slowly add to butter and sugar mixture while mixer is running.

4.  Add sweet and salty mixtures to batter and stir together.

5.  Spoon tablespoonfuls of dough onto two baking sheets covered with parchment paper or Silpat mats.  I could get 12 mounds on one sheet.

6.  Bake for about 10-16  minutes, rotating pans halfway.

7.  When cookies are golden, remove from oven and press 2 pieces of gummy worms onto each cookie.  Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.

Makes about 40 small cookies.

Recipe may be doubled.

Peanut Butter Chewy Granola Bars

Ok, so I meant to post this earlier, but I’ve been completely distracted by the recent events.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to people in the surrounding areas hit by Sandy.  Hats off to the relief effort!  The workers, leaders, and neighbors have been amazing.

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Pre-hurricane, Jamie and I made these granola bars to bring to a play date.  They aren’t the healthiest granola bars — they’re more like healthier Rice Krispie Treats!   Instead of marshmallows and butter, I used peanut butter, honey, coconut oil, brown sugar.  Then mixed it with oats, almonds in addition to rice cereal.  Super easy to make, with no baking required.

I went through about four iterations, and I like this ratio of oats, rice cereal, sweetness and chew the best.  Hope you do too!

Dry ingredients: oats, rice cereal, sliced almonds

Wet ingredients: honey, peanut butter, coconut oil, brown sugar

Pressed into pan.

Cut into bars

Peanut Butter Chewy Granola Bars

¾ cups old fashioned oats

1 ½ cups rice cereal

¼ cup toasted, sliced almonds

1 tablespoon coconut oil (or other oil or melted butter)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup peanut butter (I use the natural, goopy kind – TJ creamy, salted)

1/3 cup chocolate chips

1. Mix oats, cereal and almonds in a large bowl.  Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, brown sugar, honey and peanut butter until incorporated.  Pour over dry ingredients in big bowl.  Mix to coat.  Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Transfer mixture to a 8-inch by 8-inch pan lined with foil or parchment paper.  Press down firmly and pack into pan in an even layer of  granola.  Chill in refrigerator for about an hour.
4. Cut into 10 bars (cut square in half, then into fifths).
5. Wrap each bar in saran wrap.  They are great on the go!

Pumpkin Granola Bars Two Ways: Chewy and Crunchy

Fall is already well underway!  I can’t believe how fast Halloween is approaching.  We’ve been promoting our book, Hush Little Monster,  and doing book signings and readings.  It will continue into November.  For a list of appearances, click here.   We would love to see you if you are in the area during those times!
I was also featured on Kathy Temean’s Illustrator Saturday post over the weekend about my work and process.  Check it out here.
The coming of fall also brings…. pumpkin puree in the stores!

I thought it would be fun to develop a pumpkin recipe, and I was inspired to try making pumpkin granola bars.  I love Kashi’s because they are really crunchy and not too sweet.

I hadn’t known how hard it would be to come up with something that I would be satisfied with! The last couple of weeks have been devoted to this enterprise.  There have been “fails” along the way, but even these have tasted pretty good.  The problem has been getting it to be crunch-worthy and stick together!

Crunchy

I  initially based my ingredients on a peanut butter chewy granola bar that I will share soon in a future post.  I exchanged the peanut butter for pumpkin and applesauce, decreased the sugar, and used pepitas (roasted pumpkin seeds) instead of almonds. Unfortunately, this version of granola bar had rice cereal in it and became soggy immediately when it came in contact with the moisture of the pumpkin and applesauce!  I could hear the “Snap! Crackle! Pop!” as I was putting the pan in the oven…  FAIL!  It tasted good, but the texture was like mochi. 😦

In the second round of my quest for crunch, I omitted the rice cereal, upped the oats, and added egg white  thinking this would help the crispiness as in Anna’s Chunky Granola.   The result was a really good, tasty chewy version of pumpkin granola bars.  They are very much like an oatmeal bar cookie.  Jamie loves these and prefers them to the crunchy version.

Chewy with chocolate chips and dried cranberries!

Unsatisfied, I pushed onto a third round.  This time, I omitted the egg white, chocolate chips, and dried cranberries, thinking less chunky ingredients would help make them stay together better when cutting.  I also baked the mixture on a baking sheet in a thinner layer than the one in the baking pan.

The result was a crunchy, tasty granola bar! Finally!  There was some breakage — they are fragile– but the resulting granola is as delicious.  I mixed it with the dried cranberries and chips that I had omitted.  This granola is addicting.

I could eat this all day long.

As a side note, this granola — and their bar counterparts (I break them up) are heavenly with ice cream! Also, Jamie has come up with a novel recipe on his own which he says he will post on his blog, involving the chewy granola bars and cookie butter.   Trust me, it is wonderful.
I could go on experimenting — adding flax seeds, wheat germ, etc., but if I did, I’d end up eating batches more of granola and granola bars, and I wouldn’t be able to fit in my jeans, so I’ll stop for now!

Crunchy?

So there you have it.  Two pumpkin granola bars with similar flavors but different textures.  Which do you prefer?  Crunchy? Or chewy?

Chewy?

Chewy Pumpkin Granola Bars

2 cups oats

¼ cup pumpkin seeds (I used roasted, salted pepitas – they are smaller and have been removed from the shell)

¼ cup pumpkin puree

¼ cup applesauce

¼ cup honey

1 tablespoon oil (see note below)

1 egg white

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon pumpkin spice

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons dried cranberries

¼ cup chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line an 8-inch by 8-inch baking pan with parchment paper.  Set aside.

2.  In a large bowl, toss oats and pepitas together.  Set aside.

3.  In a smaller bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, applesauce, oil, egg white, honey, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and brown sugar together.  Pour over dry ingredients and stir until everything is coated evenly. Add dried cranberries and chocolate chips and stir to combine.

4.  Pour mixture into prepared pan.  Really press down and pack it in as tightly as you can in an even layer.  Bake for about 20-25 minutes, watching closely at the end.  Let pan cool on rack for about 5 minutes.  Run knife around edge, invert pan onto cutting board.  Cut sheet of granola in half, then into fifths, so you have ten bars.  Carefully transfer bars to rack and let cool completely.

Crunchy Pumpkin Granola Bars

2 cups oats

¼ cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas – see above)

¼ cup pumpkin puree

¼ cup applesauce

¼ cup honey

1 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon pumpkin spice

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.  Set aside.

2.  In a large bowl, toss oats and pepitas together.  Set aside.

3.  In a smaller bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, applesauce, oil, honey, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and brown sugar together.  Pour over dry ingredients and stir until everything is coated evenly.

4.  Pour mixture onto prepared sheet.  Shape into a square shape, and press down and pack it together as tightly as possible in an even layer about 3/8-inch thick. Bake for about 20 minutes.  Remove pan from oven and cut square in half and then into fifths, so you have ten bars.  They are very fragile, so be careful!  Of course any broken pieces can turn into tasty granola though….

5.  Return baking sheet to oven and cook for another 5-8 minutes, watching closely at the end of baking.  Let pan cool on rack for about 5 minutes.  Carefully transfer bars to rack and let cool completely.   They will harden up as they cool.

These can be stored in an airtight container.  If they lose their crispness, after a day or two, just toast in a toaster oven for a minute or two and then let cool completely.  They will be crunchy again!

Note:  I broke my resolve and made another batch today for a play date!  I accidentally forgot the oil (duh!), but they came out OK, and were still crunchy.  So oil is optional.

Healthy Desserts for Kids

Chocolate, banana, spinach smoothie!

Awhile ago, during the summer (those days seem far away!), I had the opportunity to join Katherine Lee of about.com in her kitchen for a fun afternoon of cooking and filming!

Katherine has a wonderful parenting blog on about.com, and she invited me to contribute some healthy dessert ideas for kids.  We made everything in her kitchen and the lovely Meredith filmed us.  It was a blast and such a different experience from what I am usually doing during the day in my studio!  She treated us to a fabulous sushi lunch, and we munched on the desserts we made throughout the day.  🙂

My favorite Double Chocolate Zucchini, Banana Bread with Secret Ingredient is one of the recipes featured.

Can you guess what the secret ingredient is?

Check out the video on how to make it here.

Other super easy, practically-not-cooking recipes are:

Peanut Butter Truffles!  Remember this post?

Video is here.

Frozen Yogurt Grapes:

I never did a post about it, but the recipe is in the video.

Banana Soft Serve (minus the Magic Shell!):

All natural goodness — just bananas and a splash of milk!

Chocolate version seen here in the video.

And last, but not least:  Chocolate, Banana, Spinach Smoothie  

This the one video I never want Jamie to see, because he drinks this all the time!  It is a great after school snack.  The spinach has absolutely no flavor in the smoothie, and he has no idea I sneak it in. I sometimes use frozen spinach which adds to the creaminess of the smoothie along with the frozen banana!

Video and recipe are here.

Hope you enjoy these recipes — they are all really easy to make and are pretty healthy considering they are desserts!

Jamie’s Trailmix and Blog

Well, it’s happened:  My eight year old son asked me if he could have his own cooking blog.  I guess I should have been flattered, but my first thought was, “Oh nooooo!”

To buy some time, I told him he’d have to come up with three original recipes and posts first.  I should have listened to my husband who said he would have made the requirement at least ten posts!

A budding writer (he’s working on a chapter book — part of a trilogy– as well), three posts was a breeze for him.  And he’s always coming up with his own creations when he helps me cook anyway.  Here’s a favorite from the past:

Jamie’s green bean sushi he named “Bean Bean Sushi”

A couple months ago, he and I were standing in line at a store near a display of trail mix meant to encourage an “impulse buy”.  Not surprisingly, he wanted me to buy a package.  To put him off, I told him it was too expensive–that it would be cheaper to make it and it would probably be better because we could put whatever we wanted into it.

Of course when we got home he wanted to make some.  So we did.

This is what he put into his mix: peanuts, roasted salted almonds, cashews, dried cranberries, chopped dried persimmon (from my mom’s trees in California and dried in her dehydrator), dried apricot, dried coconut, and some chocolate chips.  He made a label for the mix:

The good thing about this activity is that he made a healthy snack for himself for the rest of the week.  Also, it tasted really great.  Kids are more likely to eat whatever they make, so it’s a good opportunity to make nutritious food that will get eaten.  Trail mix is the easiest thing in the world to throw together and so much cheaper when you buy the pantry staples in bulk.  Try it!

Back to Jamie’s blog idea— it’s called Food Cultures and is under my name (so all comments come to me), but it’s all him.  He will write and type his own posts, and the only editing I will do is correct some spelling.  He even came up with his own header.

I digitized his sketch and we colored it together in Photoshop.

His first recipe is Reese’s Yogurt.  You can view it here. 🙂

We’ll see how long his food obsession lasts….

Easy Trail Mix

Throw into a mixing bowl:

Various nuts, such as almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, peanuts, etc.

Various dried fruit, such as dried raisins, cranberries, apricots, pineapple, coconut,  mango (chop bigger pieces of dried fruit into raisin sized pieces), etc.

You can add extras like chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, even mini marshmallows, depending on how “junky” or “healthy” you want to skew it.  Have fun!

www.melissaiwai.com
www.thehungryartist.wordpress.com

Monster Cookies

Our book was released by Simon and Schuster yesterday!

back of postcard info

It’s written by my husband, Denis, and inspired by our son, Jamie.

Jamie and Denis recreating the cover of the book

We got a starred review in Publishers Weekly. 🙂

To celebrate, Jamie helped me make Monster Cookies, inspired by the Mommy Monster’s snacks in the book.

Copyright Melissa Iwai 2012

Another example of life imitating art…

I definitely wanted “worms” in them so I decided on gummy worms which I cut in half and pressed into the cookies right after they came out of the oven (obviously I wasn’t going to bake them, as they would have turned into a puddle of goo).

Instead of sticks, we used broken up pretzels. We also threw in some chips for the saltiness and crazy monster factor.

For sweet add-ins we used chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, and dried coconut.

half-way full

This recipe was based on Everything But the Kitchen Sink Cookies found in The Cookiepedia by Stacy Adimando. It’s pretty straightforward and easy to make with kids. Coming up with the salty and sweet add-ins is part of the fun.  I reduced the amounts by 1/3 because I didn’t want to make a huge amount of cookies.  This version makes a cool one dozen large cookies.

Sweet and savory additions in the mixing bowl

I was surprised at how much they spread and got so huge! But they are monster cookies, after all… so the size is appropriate.

They taste really great. You can’t perceive the potato chips, but the saltiness surely adds to the overall flavor.  The pretzels give it good crunch.

The gummy worm addition actually works with the flavors! But I think next time we make these, we’ll add old fashioned oats for more texture.

If you get a chance, please check out Hush Little Monster! It is a perfect book for a monster loving child– or a little monster of your own. 🙂

Monster Cookies

adapted from Everything But the Kitchen Sink Cookies from The Cookiepedia

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1/2 egg white (I used 3/4 tablespoon liquid whites)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used a combination of white and whole wheat)

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup mixture of peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and dried coconut

1 cup potato chips and pretzels broken into pieces

6 gummy worms cut in half

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.  Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.  Add vanilla and eggs. Mix to incorporate, scraping down sides of bowl.

3.  Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in another bowl.

Slowly add to butter and sugar mixture while mixer is running.

4.  Add sweet and salty mixtures to batter and stir together.

5.  Spoon twelve round dough mounds  2-inches apart onto two baking sheets covered with parchment paper or Silpat mats.

6.  Bake for about 16-18 minutes, rotating pans halfway.

7.  When cookies are golden, remove from oven and press 2 halves of gummy worms onto each cookie.  Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.

Makes 1 dozen very large cookies.

Semi-sweet and White Chocolate Studded Speculoos (Cookie Butter)Pancakes

Oozing is allowed.

I usually don’t have dessert for breakfast, but this coming Mother’s Day, I am requesting this.  And I’m not getting it at a restaurant!

My husband is the waffle and pancake master in our home.  He makes  Cadbury Egg waffles (when in season) and Snuggle Mountain pancakes all the time, as well as black and white pancakes when he is feeling ambitious.

Half regular pancake with chocolate chips, half chocolate pancake with white chocolate chips

So when I finally got my hands on a jar of Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter a.k.a Speculoos, I knew I wanted him to create something using this decadent spread.

Made out of Speculoos, a Danish cookie.

He experimented a few weekends ago, making his usual delicious light and fluffy pancakes studded with chocolate chips and white chocolate chips, and I asked him to try spreading some cookie butter in between layers.  Voila!  A mouth watering, swoon inspiring breakfast dish for special occasions was born!

Couldn’t resist another close up of the Speculoos oozing out!
With a little maple syrup on top, these pancakes are to die for!

Hope all the Moms out there have a wonderful, pampered day on Sunday!

I made this card, inspired by my mom’s love for pandas. 🙂

Semi-sweet and White Chocolate Studded Speculoos Pancakes

Note:   If you can’t get to a Trader Joe’s (or they discontinue this amazing product which they tend to do when I fall in love with something), I’m sure peanut butter, almond butter, or any nut butter would make a wonderful substitution!

4 eggs, separated

1 cup of milk

1 cup of flour (a mixture of whole wheat and all purpose is nice)

1 tablespoon sugar

pinch of kosher salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

butter or oil for frying

chocolate chips (about 7 per pancake)

white chocolate chips (about 7 per pancake)

Speculoos or other nut butter spread

Maple syrup

1.  Heat griddle or skillet.  A cast iron skillet produces a nice crust.

2.  Separate eggs and whip whites until stiff but not dry.

3.  Whisk egg yolks with milk and vanilla in a bowl.

4.  Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Pour egg yolk mixture into dry mixture and combine.

5.  Fold in egg whites gently.

6.  Heat some oil and butter in pan.  Pour pancake batter in pan to whatever size you desire.  My husband usually makes small to medium sized ones.  Stud each pancake with chocolate chips and white chocolate chips.  Cook on low heat until lightly browned on bottom, about 2 minutes.  Flip and cook other side.  You can keep these warm in a 200 degree oven.

7.  To assemble, spread each pancake with Speculoos and stack.  Pour maple syrup over and serve.

Gingerbread Magna-Tiles

As Halloween fast approaches, the thought of doing another haunted gingerbread house crossed my mind.  But a couple of weeks ago Jamie had a play date with his friend, Lucas, and they built an amazing Azkaban Prison (from Harry Potter) out of Magna-Tiles, which inspired me to do something different.

Some basic shapes in a Magna-Tiles set.

Magna-tiles are great building tiles with magnets on their edges making the pieces stick together when placed side by side.  They come in two sizes of squares and several triangular shapes.  I decided to create gingerbread Magna-tiles for them to build their own haunted houses with during a cooking project/play date at our house.  Instead of magnets, of course, Royal Icing dyed grey would be used.  The recipe for the gingerbread is the same one I used last year.  It is so delicious and is perfect for building.

In preparation for the project, I made templates of the Magna-Tiles shapes out of card stock.  Downloadable PDF files of these are here.  Then I cut them out and placed them on top of the gingerbread dough and scored the dough around the shapes with a sharp knife.  I kept the rough edges intact so that the cut edges would stay sharp and crisp.

Roll out the dough on parchment paper to about a 1/8-inch thickness about the size of your baking sheet

I baked it for about  10 minutes (the recipe says to do so for 15 minutes, but I found this to be a bit too long).  Then I cut out the shapes while the dough was still soft. After it cools a bit on the baking sheet, you can remove the side pieces and cool cookies on racks.

Since there were three boys involved (Lucas’ brother Caleb also joined in the fun)I made a double batch of dough.  I ended up with three large squares for each boy to be used as a base and twelve squares and a bunch of triangles.  In retrospect, I should have made more squares!

Before they arrived, I made a work station for the builders.  Each had a baking sheet covered in foil to make their house on, a bag of grey cement (icing), a bunch of different goodies to decorate with, some white, black and red fondant for sculpting objects and monsters, and some food coloring pens (love these!)

Then they got to building (as will be evident, all three boys are really into Harry Potter right now)…

Lucas made Bellatrix Lestrange’s  Cave:

Dementor in front

I think this is a dragon egg encircled by Nagini (Voldemort's snake)

Jamie made the Shrieking Shack:

Close up of interior

Caleb made Hogwarts Castle:

It was a very creative and sugar filled play date. 🙂

Summer of Harry Potter and White Chocolate Popcorn with Chocolate Chips

I can’t believe this week will officially mark the end of our summer.  It will always be remembered as the one filled with mounds of work (I can faintly make out the light at the end of the tunnel, but still in the thick of things, hence a short post….) and Harry Potter.

My son’s friend recently told him, “Harry Potter is SO yesterday…”, but not for us.  We’ve been reading the books all summer and then watching the films afterwards.  We just finished The Order of the Phoenix (we try to read a few chapters ahead of our son to make sure it is not too scary), so that is the next movie up.

The films are never as good as the books they are based on, but it’s fun to watch them and see what parts were edited out and see how each was interpreted by the different directors.  Also it’s intriguing to watch the actors actually grow up and mature on screen — though it gives me a little pang knowing that I’ll soon be seeing the same process in my son…

Every now and then a good, decadent popcorn is in order. Our Sunday movie time is one such time.  So while we’re enjoying watching the 5th installment of the Harry Potter saga tomorrow, we’ll be munching on this.

White Chocolate Popcorn with Chocolate Chips

Note:  I have an air popper which I love, but it is easy to make popcorn on the stove.  A great method for getting evenly popped corn can be found here.

About 6-8 cups popped corn (made from 1/4 to 1/3 cups unpopped kernels)

1/4 cup white chocolate baking chips (I used Guittard)

1-2 tablespoons butter

1-2 teaspoons milk

Kosher or sea salt to taste

A handful of chocolate chips (just because)

1.  Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler or in a microwave-safe bowl at 30 second intervals on high.  Whisk butter and chocolate together, then stir in milk gradually to thin out to a sauce consistency.

2.  Pour over popped corn.  I did it in two batches and mixed the last half in the bowl of melted chocolate.  Season with salt to taste.   Toss in chocolate chips. Serve immediately, passing out napkins for sticky fingers!