Description
Christmas Crunch is a festive white chocolate popcorn treat combining crunchy popcorn, broken pretzels, colorful red and green M&Ms, and vanilla candy melts. This easy no-bake snack is perfect for holiday parties and gift-giving, featuring a sweet and salty flavor with a fun holiday crunch.
Ingredients
Scale
Popcorn Mixture
- 1/2 cup (104g) popcorn kernels
- 1 1/2 cups (75g) broken pretzel pieces or baby pretzels
- 1 (10 oz) bag green and red Milk Chocolate or Mint M&Ms
Chocolate Coating
- 1 (12 oz) bag Vanilla Candy Melts (such as Wilton Candy Melts)
Toppings
- Christmas sprinkles
Instructions
- Pop the Popcorn: Use a popcorn popper to pop the 1/2 cup of kernels into a large bowl following the manufacturer's instructions, or microwave popcorn bags as an alternative. Remove any unpopped kernels to avoid choking hazards.
- Combine Ingredients: Toss the popped popcorn with broken pretzel pieces and the green and red M&Ms in the large bowl gently to combine.
- Melt the Candy Melts: Place the vanilla candy melts in a microwave-safe bowl and melt them at 50% power in 30-second intervals, stirring after each until smooth and fully melted.
- Coat with Candy Melts: Drizzle half of the melted white candy melts over the popcorn mixture, then gently stir a few times with a rubber spatula to coat evenly. Drizzle the remaining melted candy melts over the popcorn, and gently stir again to fully coat without over mixing to keep sprinkles sticky.
- Set and Decorate: Pour the coated popcorn mixture into a single layer on wax paper. Immediately sprinkle evenly with Christmas sprinkles before the candy melts harden.
- Cool and Store: Allow the popcorn mixture to cool completely until the candy melts harden. Then, break into pieces and store in an airtight container to keep fresh.
Notes
- 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels yields about 16 to 17 cups of popped popcorn.
- If you don't have an electric popcorn popper, you can use the brown paper bag microwave method or microwave popcorn bags.
- The original recipe called for a 12 oz bag of M&M's, but a 10 oz bag works well due to packaging changes; you can add 2 extra ounces from another bag if desired.
- To have M&Ms and pretzels more visible and less covered by chocolate, set aside 1/4 of each and sprinkle them on top along with the sprinkles for decoration.
- This recipe fills about 8 to 9 party treat bags (1/2"x4" bags) about two-thirds full, perfect for gifting.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 180 kcal
- Sugar: 15 g
- Sodium: 120 mg
- Fat: 9 g
- Saturated Fat: 5 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 22 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
