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National popcorn day! 18/01/2017
It was National Popcorn Day on Thursday 19th January. Nothing to do with beer, Arkell's just like the fact that there’s a National Popcorn Day so the Swindon brewery invited children from Orchard Vale Primary School (and a couple of older students from Braydon Forest School) to celebrate at The Tawny Owl pub in Swindon.
Children from Orchard Vale Primary School, Swindon (and two from Braydon Forest School!), celebrate National Popcorn Day!!
The celebration was all quite orderly, until we invited the children to cheer! The attached photographs tell the story.
While popcorn doesn’t go quite as well with beer as a packet of crisps, like pretty much everything else in life, add beer to a recipe for popcorn and you’ll get something pretty delicious.
Popcorn was, according to www.popcorn.org, discovered in the Americas thousands of years ago. Naturally low in fat and calories and gluten-free, it fits perfectly with today’s trends.
Here’s a brilliant recipe for beer popcorn, adapted from the home of popcorn: The United States, and their Brewer’s Association.
Ingredients
½ cup un-popped popcorn
½ cup cooking oil
1-2 cups chopped pecan nuts
½ cup pretzels
I bottle Arkell’s Wiltshire Gold
3 tbl unsalted butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup whipping cream
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp baking soda
Method
Preheat oven to 250°F
In a large pot, heat up oil and add popcorn. Cover (to avoid redecorating your kitchen), but keep pan moving to pop the corn.
Remove from heat, discard un-popped kernels and place in a large baking pan, with the pecans and pretzels and keep warm in oven
In a saucepan, melt the Wiltshire Gold and butter and allow it to reduce by ¼. Add sugar and boil for 10 minutes, until it becomes really syrupy. Stir in cream and cook for around five minutes till the caramel is thick.
Remove from heat and add the salt, vanilla and baking soda. The caramel will foam up.
Pour over the popcorn, mix until everything is well coated.
Return to the oven for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
Remove pan from oven and spread mixture over parchment paper to cool.
Enjoy!
