Santa Crunch Popcorn
Our sweet and salty Santa Crunch Popcorn is delicious, easy to make, and will be very popular with both the kids and adults at your Holiday party.
Nancy and I are currently popcorn obsessed. It is our favorite go-to dessert idea right now. There is something about salty popcorn, covered in tasty melted marshmallows with just a dash of chocolate that is extremely yummy and really hits the spot. We jazzed up our Santa Popcorn Crunch with a little something extra – Pretzel M&M’s. Our Santa Crunch Popcorn is a fun and delicious Christmas treat. And it is so easy to make. It would be great for a Holiday movie night or as an extra dessert on your Christmas party table! Hmm … mmmm … good!
Ingredients You Will Need
Preparing the Popcorn
Step 1: You will need 10 cups of popcorn. We pop our popcorn on the stove (you can find our directions on How to Make Perfect Popcorn here) but you can use air-popped or microwave.
Step 2: After the popcorn is popped, make sure to remove all of the un-popped kernels. You don’t want to bite down on one of those!
Step 3: Once you have made the popcorn, salt it liberally. It is so nice to taste the salty popcorn with the sweet marshmallow coating. Not quite like Kettle Corn but close.
Preparing the Marshmallow Mixture
Step 4: To make the Marshmallow Mixture, add 3 tablespoons of butter to a medium saucepan. Melt the butter on medium heat, stirring occasionally until the butter is completely melted.
Step 5: Add 3 cups of mini marshmallows to the saucepan.
Step 6: Stir until the marshmallows are covered in butter, and then continue to stir until the marshmallows are completely melted.
Step 7: Take the marshmallow mixture off the heat as soon as the last marshmallow has melted.
Making the Marshmallow Popcorn
Step 8 & 9: Slowly pour about a third of the marshmallow mixture over the salted popcorn.
Step 10: Gently fold the marshmallow mixture in with the popcorn. Continue to add the marshmallow mixture a bit at a time, stirring between each addition.
Step 11: The popcorn should be completely covered in the warm marshmallow mixture.
Step 12: Now pour the popcorn onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, foil, or a Silpat liner.
Step 13: Use the spatula to even the popcorn out on the cookie sheet.
Christmas Candy Mix-In’s
Step 14: Now it is time for the candy mix-ins. We added red and green Mini M&M’s, Regular sized Red & Green M&M’s, and red and green Pretzel M&M’s. We also threw in a small handful of mini marshmallows and some Christmas Sprinkles. You can find the special Christmas Blend of M&M’s at Christmastime in most grocery and big box stores.
Assembling the Popcorn
Step 15: Once the popcorn is covered in marshmallow mixture it is time to add the candy. But don’t wait too long. You want the marshmallow mixture to still be warm and sticky so the candy and sprinkles will stick to it. Sprinkle the candy onto the popcorn.
Step 16: Allow the Santa Crunch Popcorn to cool. Break apart into pieces and serve.
Expert Tips and FAQ’s
We make our popcorn from scratch on the stove – nothing is better than that in our opinion. You can find all the tips and tricks you need to make the perfect popcorn right here. You can also use Microwave popcorn but you should use a type that has no butter flavoring added.
The contrast of sweet and salty in this popcorn recipe is super yummy. To get that combination you should lean towards over-salting the popcorn. We try to salt the popcorn as soon as it comes out of the pan so that salt sticks to the hot popcorn.
Our family loves this popcorn so it has never lasted longer than a day at our house. This popcorn definitely tastes the best right after it is made but will keep for a few days in an airtight container. The popcorn is a little chewier the next day because the popcorn absorbs some of the moisture from the marshmallow mixture but it still tastes good.
Other Christmas Treats You Will Love
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Santa Crunch Popcorn
Our sweet and salty Santa Crunch Popcorn is delicious, easy to make and will be very popular with kids and adults at your Holiday party.
Ingredients
- 10 Cups of Popped Popcorn
- 3 tablespoons Butter (Sweet Cream, Salted)
- 3 cups Mini Marshmallows
- Red and Green Regular M&M’s
- Red and Green Pretzel M&M's
- Red and Green M&M Minis
- Christmas Sprinkles
Instructions
- Pop 10 cups of popcorn and remove all of the un-popped kernels. Salt it liberally and set it aside in a large bowl.
- Add 3 tablespoons of butter to a medium saucepan. Melt the butter on medium heat, stirring occasionally until the butter is completely melted.
- Add 3 cups of mini marshmallows to the melted butter.
- Stir until the marshmallows are covered in the butter, and then continue to stir until the marshmallows are completely melted.
- Take the marshmallow mixture off of the heat as soon as the last marshmallow has melted.
- Slowly pour about a third of the marshmallow mixture over the salted popcorn.
- Gently fold the marshmallow mixture in with the popcorn. Continue to add the marshmallow mixture a bit at a time, stirring between each addition. The popcorn should be completely covered in the warm marshmallow mixture.
- Now pour the popcorn onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, foil, or a Silpat liner. Use the spatula to even the popcorn out on the cookie sheet.
- Once the popcorn is covered in marshmallow mixture it is time to add the candy. But don’t wait too long. You want the marshmallow mixture to still be warm and sticky so the candy and sprinkles will stick to it. Sprinkle the candy onto the popcorn. We added red and green Mini M&M's, Regular sized Red & Green M&M's, and red and green Pretzel M&M's. We also threw in a small handful of mini marshmallows and some Christmas Sprinkles.
- Allow the Santa Crunch Popcorn to cool. Break apart into pieces and serve.
Did you Make this Recipe? Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @twosisterscrafting on Instagram so we can see it!
Thanks for sharing this amazing information it will be really helpful for me.
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Thank you!!
Can I use marshmallow fluff? What do you think a good conversion would be for the mini marshmallows?
I have never tried this but I would think it would work.
Seemed to be a winner recipe. I made this with caramel Christmas m&ms. I looked high and low for pretzel ones and couldn’t find them, but they sure sound like a winning combination. The caramel m&ms were really good, too, though. I served it to a large group and at first people were a little hesitant to go after it as they needed to be a little aggressive to break off a chunk as it got a little harder when it dried. However, once I enoucraged just “digging in” they weren’t shy any longer. We ate it through out the day, and although it required breaking to take a chunk, it wasn’t hard to eat.
Festive dish that a few compared to “Popcorn cake” which I had never heard of before. I looked it up and it does sound similar except most put that in a bundt pan or angel food cake pan. Thanks for this neat idea and others. I also made the marshmallows on a stick coated in melting chocolate which were a big hit.
Hi Kate! We are so glad you enjoyed the popcorn and Marshmallow Pops recipes! Thanks for letting us know!!
I made this for Christmas parties at work and with family.
It only took minutes to throw together and it was a huge success!! Everyone loved it!
Just made this with my youngest son. Thanks for the recipe! Easy and quick to make!!
Hi Dee! You are so welcome! We are so glad you like it!
I used to make this for the kids but haven’t in years but I used to add a packet of jello to the melted marshmallow before mixing with popcorn and do a batch of different colors and package them in Christmas packaging for all the kids at Christmas. Think I will do that again this year, although there are many more kids now! Thanks for reminding me of this fun and yummy recipe!
What kind of popcorn can I use? Bagged or do I need to go with the plain popcorn kerns that comes in bulk? I’m asking because I don’t have a popcorn machine and I want to know what brand of bagged popcorn is recommended? Butter plain? Orville or jolly time?
Hi Jessica – you can use microwave popcorn. You should use a salted but NOT buttered version. There is plenty of butter in the marshmallow mixture. If you want to pop your own … here are directions on how to make popcorn in a pan on the stove (no popcorn maker needed.) . https://www.twosisterscrafting.com/how-to-make-perfect-popcorn/
We made this and watched Elf last year! Now it is a tradition we will do every Christmas! Thank you!!
Awwww … this makes us so happy. Thanks for letting us know. We love Elf too!
Oh my my! Give me a Bucket of this anytime!! Going to try it with peanuts too!
Peanuts! Yum. That sound like a great Popcorn mix-in!
Hi are u going to sale the Crunch Popcorn on line and on Facebook?
Hi Tonya, no we won’t be selling the popcorn.
The m&m’s melted when we added them, what could we have done to prevent this? We did not add them right away
Hi Melissa – I’m not sure what happened. I’ve never had that happen.
This seems like a silly question, but how would one eat/serve this? Hands would get so sticky reaching in, and it’s not bar form like a Krispie Treat. Do you serve/eat with a spoon? Hands and lots of napkins?
Hello! I want to give this recipe a try. However I need clarification. The ingredient Vanilla, is it Vanilla Extract?
Yes. Vanilla Extract.
Any idea how many servings this makes? Want to package it into little bags for a holiday sweetd exchange.
Hi Terri – this recipe has enough marshmallow mixture to thoroughly cover 10-12 cups of popcorn. If you want a more lightly covered popcorn, you could push that to 12-15 cups of popcorn. Hope that helps!
I already have a bag of regular size marshmallows and would like to melt them for this recipe. Can you give an equivalent amount I would need to use instead of the minis?
Hi Kim – here is a conversion chart that I found for you: http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/dessert/candy/kraft-marshmallow-conversion-chart.html Hope that helps!
Says 1/4 popcorm in ingredients and then 1/2 cup in directions. I presume it is 1/2 cup, is that correct?
Yes 1/2 cup. That was a typo – thanks for the heads up.
Can this be made a day earlier?
Hi Amy – we added an update to the post on a test we did on storing the popcorn. You can read it here: https://www.twosisterscrafting.com/santa-crunch-popcorn/
I can’t wait to try this with my son! Can you please tell me how long it will last?
Hi Andi – we added an update to the post on a test we did on storing the popcorn. You can read it here: https://www.twosisterscrafting.com/santa-crunch-popcorn/
How long can you store this in an air tight container? Should I store in the fridge or on the counter?
I wonder how this keeps? I would like to mail some to the grandkids so it would probably need to keep at least 5 days? Or is there something else easy you could suggest? Thanks!
Hi Terri – we added an update to the post on a test we did on storing the popcorn. You can read it here: https://www.twosisterscrafting.com/santa-crunch-popcorn/
On the Grinch Popcorn, you said it doesn’t keep well so make close to time to serve. What about the Santa crunch? Does it keep any better? I am looking for recipes for a craft fair. Thank you–Barbara Collins
I’ve never seem pretzel M&Ms. Would peanut M&Ms work, too?
Sure … that sounds good too.