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While I was picking the candy for this white chocolate based snack mix, I knew I wanted Hersey’s Cookies and Cream Drops for another white chocolate element, but also found that including a mix of Crispy M&M’s and Mini M&M’s gave some touches of chocolate and a touch of rainbow while still keeping a light and crispy cookies and cream vibe. Finishing the mix with White Chocolate Kit Kat Minis, their light wafer filling perfectly complemented the kettle corn and cookies while still being crispy and light like the other elements of this mix.
Anyone who knows me knows I love chocolate in all its forms; and while I’m usually a milk chocolate lady, there is certainly a time and place for white chocolate as well! So once I was done indulging all my chocolate and peanut butter love with my Pretzel Peanut Butter Snack Mix, I wanted to create another mix that was sweet, but instead of dense and chocolatey, light and airy. With cloudlike kettle corn and sweet circus animals for my inspiration, this Rainbow Cookies and Cream Kettle Corn Mix was created!
For the base of this sweet snack mix, I opted for a Light Kettle Corn that I drizzled with white chocolate and sprinkles, both for a little pop of pink to go with the cookies and rainbow theme and to bring white chocolate into each bite in a lighter way; after all I wanted it to be sweet but not too sweet. I worried that regular kettle corn would be too sweet when adding white chocolate to the mix, and overall I’m very happy I chose it, making this mix both lighter and less calorie laden than its milk chocolate cousin.
Now my favorite white chocolate flavor combo is cookies and cream, so while I wanted a lighter mix I still wanted some touches of cocoa throughout, and as it turns out Mini Oreos were the perfect fit for this mix, especially with their vanilla sweet centers and cocoa cookie exteriors. In addition to them and going with the cloudlike theme, I choose the coated and sprinkled Circus Animal Cookies to complement them, as clouds are always changing to pretty colors at sunrise and sunset and looking for animal shapes in the clouds is a pastime everyone has done once or twice.
The result was this delightfully sweet and whimsical sweet snack mix that can be easily made for Hangover bags like I did, or as additions to Wedding Guest Bags or to serve in a bowl at your next party! I hope you enjoy the snack mixes I’ve created, but I’d encourage you to also Design your own Sweet Snack Mixes based on your own favorite flavors, I can’t wait to continue adding to my Sweet and Savory Snack Mixes with my own favorite flavor combinations, and in the meantime I hope you are inspired to create your own unique mixes too!
INGREDIENTS
BASE INGREDIENTS:
12 cups Light Kettle Corn
10 oz. Ghirardelli White Chocolate Melts
COOKIES & OTHER MIX INS:
3 cups Circus Animal Cookies
1 cup Mini Oreos
CANDY MIX INS:
1 cup Cookies and Cream Hershey Drops
1 cup White Chocolate Kit Kats
1 cup Crispy M&M’s
1 cup Mini M&M’s
PREPARATION
1. PREPARE THE WHITE CHOCOLATE KETTLE CORN: Line the baking sheet with parchment paper and lay out kettle corn in a single layer. Melt white chocolate in the microwave until liquid and stir able, then transfer to a disposable piping bag. Cut a small hole on the tip of the bag and drizzle the chocolate evenly over all the candy corn to your taste. While the chocolate is still warm, sprinkle the kettle corn with sprinkles if desired. Once cooled and chocolate has solidified, transfer your chocolate kettle corn to a large mixing bowl.
2. Add the Circus Animals, Mini Oreos, and White Chocolate Kit Kats to the Popcorn, tossing to combine. Add the Cookies and Cream Drops, Crispy M&M’s, and Mini M&M’s together in a separate bowl.
3. I divide the ingredients I’m using in my snack mixes based on size, generally into the base with its larger mixins and the candy with its smaller mix-ins. I always find the smaller candies and denser objects end up at the bottom of party bowls, making it difficult to distribute between favor bags or to be equally incorporated in a party bowl. If you are serving in a bowl, I recommend layering the mixes together but if you are planning on dividing it among favor bags, add each of the two mixes separately, so each guest gets all the parts of the mix. In this case, you’ll notice that the kit kats aren’t in the candy mix despite being candy, that's because they were bulky enough to mix well into my more voluminous popcorn mixture.
IF SERVING IN A BOWL - Add ⅓ of the popcorn mixture to the bowl, then sprinkle ⅓ of the candy mixture over it. Repeat layering the two mixes twice more, then serve. Makes aprx. 16 cups
IF SERVING IN BAGS - For every favor bag (assuming your bag holds aprx. 1 ½ cup of mix), add 1 ½ cups of the popcorn mixture, then top with ⅛ cup of the candy mixture, shaking the bag to distribute it throughout, then close with a twist tie. Makes aprx. 15 - 1 ½ cup favor bags per recipe. I made a double batch to create 30 bags total.
There are many ways you can package snack mixes, but for this set I love to use Cellophane Bags from Wilton, with these being the closest I could find on Amazon for 1 ½ cups my bags naturally fit. Use gloved hands to transfer it into the bags.Each batch made almost 15 bags with these proportions, and my double batch made 30 total.
Other great packaging options for this mix include:
Cone Shaped Cellophane Bags: These don’t limit you to the amount of mix you want to give and can still be used with our cute Vellum Overlay Snack Mix Tags.
Kraft Tin Tie Window Bags: These rustic cuties come in a variety of sizes depending on how much mix you want to give each guest, being easily labelled with cute stickers like the ones from Evermine.
There are so many different packaging options out there, I encourage you to explore and find a unique one that works for you!
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