Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs

Seriously, these were “the best” when I was a child. Caramel popcorn and nuts. My mum had a serious sweet tooth and would purchase a box every so often for us. We loved watching family/Christmas movies and eating them together.

When my son was little, they disappeared off the market, so I made them myself. Some traditions need to stick, don’t they? ???

Anyway, I used to teach these (as my take on the delicious Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs) in my lolly making class, here at the cooking school, but now I’ve got my TM6 OMGosh, they couldn’t be easier.

Let’s talk about my tips; wow, I have a few for this one, so grab a cuppa.

First, make the popcorn my easy, mess-free way:

1. I pop my popcorn in an oven bag: You can reuse these bags, turn them inside out to fully dry, then turn them back again for next time.
2. Tip 100g of popping corn into the bag, then tie a knot in the top or put an elastic or plastic clip to seal it.
3. Take a pair of scissors and cut a small hole out of one of the bottom corners. The hole has to be small enough for the unpopped corn to fall out but not the popped corn. You need to do this before you start the popping process. It allows the steam to escape and all those unpopped popcorn to come out later. No breaking your teeth at my place. ???
4. Now put the oven bag with the popcorn in your microwave and set it for around 3 minutes. Keep it going as long as you hear them popping. Once the popping slows down to almost nothing, stop the microwave, as you don’t want to burn them.
5. Be very careful when you remove the bag if it’s still hot. Grab a baking dish of some sort. Something that can handle the heat of the unpopped corn kernels because there are always some?. Hold the bag over the dish and shake until all the unpopped corn falls through the little hole you made in the corner.
6. Transfer the popped popcorn into a bowl, and if you like, you can put the unpopped corn kernels back in the oven bag and give them another burst. Waste not, want not…

Now make the Caramel for the popcorn:

The recipe I used to make on the stovetop had other ingredients, plus vanilla and a touch of bicarb, but I’ve found one on Cookidoo that works just fine and is easy. We like that, don’t we?

Before you start, I suggest you read the whole Cookidoo Recipe. You can find several Caramel Popcorn recipes on there if you have all your filters turned on, as I’ve shown you in my Zoom sessions.

I chose this one because it will set hard and not weep as much as some of the others. Anyway, click here to see the recipe on Cookidoo for Caramel Popcorn. If you don’t have a TM6 Cookidoo and a guided recipe like this, you’ll have to use a sugar work recipe on the TM6 or the stovetop. Chat with me in our Facebook group, and I can help you there.

Rules for making popcorn:

Seriously, don’t let this put you off. I could share a recipe with no rules that’s really short but reading the list below will save you from getting into any trouble. It really is very easy to do. Almost too easy, do it once and you’ll see what I mean. ???

• You need to be organised.
• Don’t let Children do this; Caramel is very hot toffee. It burns and sticks!
• Have a large bowl or baking tin ready, preferably made of ceramic or stainless, that won’t melt or crack when something really hot is added to it.
• I add nuts, it’s up to you, but Lolly Gobble Bliss bombs had them. ?
• Choose a mix of nuts or just one variety but make sure they’re pre-toasted. Pre-toasted nuts will taste way better than soft raw ones.
• I choose unsalted nuts, but you could use salted ones. If you do go down the salted track, tip them into a colander and shake off all that excess salt that settles at the bottom of the bag. That’s going to be too much salt for this recipe.
• When the Cookidoo recipe says to heat your oven and put your popcorn in, I didn’t do that; I turned it on, but I didn’t add the popcorn to the oven until my Thermomx said to add the butter to the caramel. You only need to warm the popcorn and nuts through, not dry them out at this stage.
• You must have warm popcorn and nuts ready for when you add your caramel. If you add warm caramel to cold popcorn and nuts, your caramel will seize and not spread all over nicely.
• When it was time to pour the caramel over the popcorn, I added 1/2 tsp bicarb and 5 g of vanilla to the TM bowl and used a silicon spatula (one that can handle the heat) and gave it a quick stir before pouring. The bicarb will help lighten up the caramel, so it’s a tad easier to crunch into, and the vanilla, well, vanilla, just makes it yummier.
• The cookidoo recipe calls for honey. This helps prevent the crystals from appearing in your toffee as it’s cooking. Choose a honey variety that you love the flavour of. My old stove top recipe used Glucose.
• The Cookidoo recipe says to make sure you clean the rim of your bowl as soon as you’ve tipped your caramel out. Yes, do that, if you can, but it’s not an issue if you don’t get to it in time though. The caramel will come off easily with a bit of soaking. Just put your whole TM bowl in the sink and fill it with water, then put a wet dishcloth over the rim where the caramel is stuck and leave it to soak. 30 minutes and you’ll be able to wipe/rub it off.

Now, go have some fun!