Name: Berry and Chocolate Popcorn Bars
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 10
Ingredients: 1 1/12 cup quick cook oats; 1 1/2 cup of popped popcorn; 60gms butter; 1/3 cup brown sugar; ¼ cup of honey, golden syrup or any other sugar syrup; 1 tbsp berry jam; ¼ cup dried strawberries; ¼ cup cranberries; chocolate for melting

Now that I have finally mastered the homemade muesli bar I make a batch every week, sometimes twice a week. My kids never seem to tire of them, but I do.

I try and mix things up a bit by adding different flavours – dried apple with cinnamon, sultanas and honey, cranberry and white choc chips… but even that was getting old. It was time to do something really wild… and try making them with popcorn!

Yep, tweaking my muesli bar recipe to become popcorn bars is about as wild and crazy as my life gets at the moment. Well that, and reading the Hunger Games!

So in case your life needs a little crazy in it as well here’s the recipe for homemade Berry and Chocolate Popcorn Bars.

Berry and Chocolate Popcorn Bars

Yield: 10-12 bars

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

1 1/12 cup quick cook oats
1 1/2 cup of popped popcorn
60gms butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
¼ cup of honey, golden syrup or any other sugar syrup
1 tbsp berry jam
¼ cup dried strawberries
¼ cup cranberries
chocolate for melting

Instructions

Line and lightly grease a 20x30cm loaf tin. You could use a slightly smaller tin which will make your bars a little thicker. I use a ceramic lasagne dish because it’s what I have and it makes thin bars.
I popped our own pop corn and 1/4 cup of uncooked popcorn made more than enough for the bars and for a snack, so a tablespoon would probably be plenty.
Once popped and cooled pack your popcorn really well into the measuring cups. It needs to break up a bit into smaller pieces or the bars will not stick together so well so squash it down and don't worry if it crumbles!
Mix all dry ingredients and dried fruit in a large bowl.
In a small saucepan combine the butter, honey, and sugar and stir over a medium heat until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved.
When the mixture starts to bubble and boil turn the heat down and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring now and then.
Add the tablespoon of jam just before the two minutes cooking time are up and stir well, breaking up any lumps.
Take the syrup off the heat after two minutes and immediately pour it over your dry ingredients. Stir well to make sure all dry ingredients are coated.
Spread the mixture into your tin/dish and push it down very firmly with the back of a metal spoon and pop it into the fridge.
Once cold and set melts some chocolate and pour over the top and pop it back into the fridge until the chocolate has set.
Lift it out of the tin and cut into bars or bite sized pieces.

Nutrition Information:

Serving Size: 1 bar
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 120

Like my original muesli bar recipe – make sure you use quick cook oats not rolled oats, make sure you don’t overcook the syrup (if your bars are too dry you cooked it too long, if they are too sticky you need to cook it a little longer) and make sure you push it really firmly into the tin or dish so it sticks together well.

This time you also need to make sure you really pack the popcorn into the measuring cups and crumble/crush it into smaller pieces. If it is all looking a little too sticky when you put it into the tin crumble up some more pop corn and push it into the top.

So there you have it… my wild and crazy homemade popcorn bars!

What do you cook so many times that you could do it in your sleep??

8 Comments

Thanks for the recipe. I just wanted to check the quantity of brown sugar as it has come up with a ?

Excellent! My girls love popcorn and love your muesli recipe so this is sure to be a hit :)
{Jodie its 1/3 cup of brown sugar}

Oh yum!! I just bought a bag of popcorn so this recipe will be perfect!! I think I could bake choc chip cookies in my sleep lol xx

Great recipe! I just finished making my second batch – they were so popular. Tweaked it a bit and replaced the berries with dried apple (because that’s all I had in the pantry) but they still taste great. Winner! Thank you.