Whether you’re hosting a movie night or just need a quick dessert to bring to a party, popcorn bars with marshmallows and M&M’s are the perfect choice!
Popcorn bars
These no-bake treat bars make the perfect party snack! You can whip these popcorn bars up in just a few minutes and enjoy a sweet treat in no time. The combination of sweet marshmallows and salty popcorn is sure to satisfy everyone’s cravings.
Other chocolate desserts you will love:
How do you pop popcorn on the stovetop?
You don’t need any fancy equipment to make delicious popcorn at home! All you need to pop fresh popcorn is a pot with a lid, popcorn kernels, and oil. Follow these simple instructions to make popcorn on the stovetop to use in your popcorn bars:
- Place one tablespoon of vegetable oil in the bottom of a pot and cook over medium low heat.
- When the oil is hot, add 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels and shake the pot to coat the kernels in oil.
- Place the lid on top of the pan, leaving it tilted slightly to allow steam to escape as the popcorn cooks.
- When the popcorn begins to pop, shake the pan to keep the kernels from burning as they pop.
- When there are two to three seconds between pops, remove the pan from heat and transfer the popcorn to a bowl.
To use your freshly popped popcorn for your popcorn bars, season the popcorn lightly with salt, then stir it into the melted marshmallow mixture.
How Many Kernels Make a Cup of Popcorn?
Figuring out how much popcorn you’ll need to make can be difficult because those little kernels might not look like much, but they can turn into a lot of popcorn if you aren’t careful. That’s why it’s a good idea to figure out how much popcorn kernels you’ll need to pop for your recipe.
A good rule of thumb to consider is that 1 tablespoon will make around 1 ½ cups of popped popcorn. So, that means ¼ cup of popcorn kernels will make around 7 cups of popcorn. And 1/3 cup of kernels will make around 9 cups of popcorn.
That means to be safe, you’ll need around 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels to make the 8 cups of popped popcorn needed for this chocolate popcorn bars recipe.
Popcorn Treat Variations
Now that you know the ingredients in a basic chocolate popcorn bar recipe, you can start changing things up. There are so many different variations you could take on this simple recipe! Try some of these popcorn bar recipe ideas to make your own custom treats:
- Plain popcorn bars. Keep things simple and skip the chocolate all together. To make plain popcorn bars, just combine the butter, corn syrup and marshmallows. When the mixture is melted, stir in the popcorn and press the mixture into a pan.
- Caramel. Instead of chocolate, try adding caramel to the bars to make some caramel corn bars. Mix caramel syrup into the butter and marshmallow mixture in place of corn syrup to add a delicious caramel flavor to your bars.
- Peanut butter. Add even more sweet and salty flavor to your popcorn bars with the help of peanut butter. Instead of corn syrup, mix in creamy peanut butter with your butter and marshmallows, then stir in the popcorn for a delicious peanut butter treat.
- Peanut butter chips. You could also replace the chocolate chips in the recipe with peanut butter chips to add peanut butter flavor to the bars. Keep the ratio of corn syrup and marshmallows the same and simply swap out the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips.
- Sprinkles. You can add more color to your popcorn bars with the help of sprinkles. Use seasonal sprinkles to create holiday themed popcorn bars. Or simply sprinkle some rainbow sprinkles on the top of the bars for a colorful party treat.
- Chopped candy bars. Give your popcorn bars a movie theater feel by adding some chopped candy to the top. There are tons of great candy options you could use to top your popcorn bars, like Snickers, Twix, Milk Duds, and Reese’s cups.
Chocolate Popcorn Bars
Ingredients in marshmallow Bars
The best part about this simple recipe is that it can easily be adjusted to suit your tastes and preferences. Once you have the basic recipe down, you can change out the toppings to make a variety of different popcorn bar recipes! To make chocolate popcorn bars, you’ll need:
- Butter. The key to getting ooey, gooey treat bars is butter. You can use either unsalted or salted butter for these treats, depending on how salty you want your popcorn bars to be.
- Corn syrup and marshmallows. The combination of smooth corn syrup and fluffy marshmallows gives these snack bars the perfect texture and just the right amount of sweetness.
- Popped popcorn. The star of these treat bars is the popcorn. Air popped popcorn or popcorn made on the stovetop are both great options for these bars because of their neutral flavor. You could also use your favorite microwave popcorn to add to these chocolate treat bars.
- Chocolate chips. To give your popcorn bars plenty of chocolate flavoring, you’ll need some chocolate chips to mix into the marshmallow sauce.
- Mini M&Ms. Add a pop of color and even more chocolate to these sweet and salty treats by topping the bars with mini M&Ms before serving them.
How do you make popcorn bar recipe?
- Place the butter in a large stock pot and melt over medium low heat.
- Add the marshmallows and corn syrup and stir, cooking over low heat until melted.
- Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the popcorn.
- Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Press the mixture into a 9×13 pan. Top with mini M&Ms and press the candy into the bars.
- Allow to cool completely, then cut into bars and serve.
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Marshmallow chocolate popcorn bars
Equipment
- stock pot
Ingredients
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup corn syrup
- 1 x 10- ounce package mini marshmallows
- 8 cups popped popcorn
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup mini M&Ms
Instructions
- Place the butter in a large stock pot and melt over medium low heat. Add the marshmallows and corn syrup and stir, cooking over low heat until melted.
- Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the popcorn.
- Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Press the mixture into a 9x13 pan lined with baking paper.
- Top with mini M&Ms and press the candy into the bars.
- Allow to cool completely, then cut into bars and serve.
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