Give Popcorn A Sweet Glaze With Melted Cotton Candy

Movie nights at home don't seem complete without a bowl of homemade popcorn, but homemade doesn't have to mean plain. With a variety of popcorn seasonings available, you can make your own gourmet version in a pinch. You don't have to limit yourself to savory popcorn, either, as coating it with something sweet also works. And what could be more deliciously sugary than light and airy cotton candy? 

Cotton candy is a great option for adding a sweet glaze and also a pop of color to popcorn. The typical cotton candy flavor that's so familiar tastes something like a combination of fruit sweets and caramelized sugar, thanks to these ingredients: ethyl maltol, strawberry furanone, and ethyl vanillin. Pink cotton candy's pink vanilla flavor is simply vanilla, the pink merely referring to the sugar's coloring. Blue cotton candy, on the other hand, is a little fruitier. Its blue raspberry flavor isn't quite derived from raspberry but comes from the esters of the banana, cherry, and pineapple. In reality, it has very little to do with actual fruit. 

However, you can go way beyond these traditional choices and explore a wide selection of gourmet cotton candy flavors and colors with your popcorn. Enjoy fun ones like bubblegum, marshmallow, and birthday cake, experiment with tropical notes of peach, mango, and pineapple, and savor the decadent flavors of Irish cream, bourbon, and whiskey. You'll definitely be making sweet popcorn that you've never tasted anywhere else.

You can use ready-made cotton candy to glaze your popcorn. To ensure fuller flavor, follow one of our tips to make the best popcorn and use a wok with a lid. Put in oil then either cotton candy or floss sugars, and let the sugar melt before adding in unpopped kernels. Cover the pot or wok and let the kernels cook on medium heat. Once the popping stops, transfer the popcorn to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and gently break down clumps with a wooden ladle. Let everything cool before putting your cotton candy-glazed popcorn in a bowl. 

Since the confection is so light and airy, it would take eating a huge volume of cotton candy to feel full, which could lead to mindless snacking. Using cotton candy to glaze popcorn is a healthier way of getting a sugar rush, since a 100-gram serving of unbuttered, oil-popped popcorn has 10 grams of fiber. That means not only will you feel full fairly quickly but the chewiness of the popcorn also lets you savor the flavor of its sweet coating longer.