Strawberry PINK Popcorn: No Food Coloring!

Once in a while, I come across a person, who by ways of off-tangent, or trigger-reference, will suddenly shift their eyes past my shoulders, gaze longingly, and then speak out loud about their grandmother’s homemade cherry pie, or their mother’s fresh baked chocolate chip cookies warmly greeting them as they come home from school. Their look lingers, even in afterthought.

I have those moments too.

For… THIS:

Lucky Elephant Pink Popcorn — Picture Courtesy Of: pacificcandywhsle.com

Lucky Elephant Pink Candy Popcorn.

I didn’t grow up with a mother who baked cookies. But who needed homemade cookies when I had an entire grocery store filled with every kind of candy you can imagine, owned by my parents, all for my taking?

My go-to sweets: Sour Keys. Bubble Gum. Popsicles. And Pink Popcorn.

…

So naturally, for this Valentine’s I wanted to recreate this magical popcorn of my past for Els and her friends. However, after looking up a few recipes online, I decided to forgo using red food coloring, sacrifice the original taste and like my strawberry buttercream frosting, use freeze dried strawberries instead. So instead of Pink Elephant, we have strawberry pink popcorn. But it tastes just as good, if not (dare I say it?) better.

I used:
1/2 cup of un-popped popcorn
1 1/2 cups of marshmallows
2 tbsp of butter
1 tbsp of ground freeze dried strawberries
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I used organic freeze dried strawberries which you can find here.

I wanted to do a very light coat, with subtle pink and subtle taste. I suggest if you wanted a heavier coat with more strawberry flavor to use:

1/2 cup of un-popped popcorn
2 cups of marshmallows
3 tbsp of butter
2 tbsp of ground freeze dried strawberries

To grind the strawberries, I thew a handful of strawberries into my food processor and ground until a very fine texture.

It should look like this.

To pop the popcorn, I added 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large pot. On high, I moved the pot back and forth rapidly holding down the lid until all the popcorn popped.

You can add a little salt if you wish. I then melted the butter on low. Added the marshmallows stirring slowly. Once the marshmallows were almost melted, I added the ground strawberry.