It’s Improv Cooking Challenge time again. I missed last month because I was on vacation sans computer or anything internet oriented. It was a glorious ten days of unplugging which gave me a chance to recharge and reorganize my life. I am back and rolling with this month’s theme, which is Peanuts and Popcorn. It’s summer, with baseball games and all that those bring, including the famous 7th inning stretch and the song “take me out to the ball game.” Well, I won’t be buying any peanuts and cracker jack, but these Chocolate Popcorn Squares, have peanut butter and popcorn in them, so it will do for the Improv.
My second son, The Thinker, is a food purist. He rolls his eyes and complains loudly when he sees me combine ingredients that he normally eats plain. I had him pop me up a bag of microwave popcorn this week for use as an “ingredient.” He was appalled that I was going to add his beloved popcorn to a dessert. He changed his tune, however, later that night when I handed him his dessert. He actually gave me permission to continue my popcorn experiments. It was my turn to roll my eyes and thank him. He is such a silly boy.
These squares are a play on rice crispy treats. There are still plenty of rice crispies to stablize the bars, but the addition of the popcorn gives a new texture and taste. All of my family loved them and gobbled them up in no time flat.
1. Info for Chocolate Popcorn Squares
- Cook Time: unavailable
- Total Time: unavailable
- Servings: unavailable
- Calories: unavailable
2. Ingredients for Chocolate Popcorn Squares
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup corn syrup
- ⅓ cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 2 cups popped popcorn (can be buttered, microwave popcorn)
- 3-4 cups rice crispy cereal
3. Directions:
- In a sauce pan, combine sugar and corn syrup.
- Bring to a boil over medium heat.
- When sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and quickly stir in peanut butter and chocolate chips.
- Place popcorn and rice crispy cereal in a large bowl.
- Pour chocolate mixture over the popcorn mixture and stir.
- Place mixture in a greased 9×9 pan and press down to form a flat-ish pan of bars.
- Let set and then cut into squares.