Quick & Easy Popcorn Marshmallow Bars

If you like a tad of saltiness in your sweet treats, then you should love these chewy, sticky, no-bake popcorn marshmallow bars.

We love a ‘cinema party’ at home and popcorn always features on the menu. I am useless at making it fresh, so Hubby is normally in charge of popping corn, to the children’s delight.

When Butterkist challenged us to create a recipe using popcorn, I really could not say no, could I?

My children love Squares (yuck!) so I decided to make something similar for them, only nicer.

The first time she tried Butterkist sweet and salted popcorn, Jumpy asked whether she could have another packet, bless her. I tried it too and I have to say I find sweet popcorn with a touch of salt quite simply addictive!

Both Jumpy (3 years old) and Wriggly (2 years old) got involved in this fun cooking session, and we had a great time together.

Just be warned: we started using a 2 litre prep bowl, but it proved too small so we end up doing the mixing in my huge le Creuset casserole dish (28cm).

Tip: to make sure the bars stick together, you will have to press them down firmly after you have transferred the mixture to your prepared dish.

The end result was worth the 15 minutes or so we spent making the bars: what a treat!

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Quick & Easy Popcorn Marshmallow Bars

Prep Time 15 minutes

Servings 10

Ingredients

• 6 Cups Butterkist sweet and salted popcorn 90g
• 1 cup toasted rice cereal 20g, Rice Krispies
• 4 cups marshmallows 240g
• 1/3 cup 80ml full fat milk
• 1/2 cup 'free from' salted pretzels broken into pieces 25g, I used Schär
• 1/4 cup tiny fudge pieces 40g
• 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips 40g
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate 40g

Instructions

1. Line a rectangular dish (25x16cm) with baking paper twice the size you need so you can fold it over the popcorn mixture when it is ready. 
2. In a large bowl, combine the popcorn and toasted rice cereal. Give them a stir.
3. In a pan, melt the marshmallows with the milk over a medium heat. You will need to stir constantly so the mixture does not burn. Take off the heat and leave to cool for 20 minutes, giving the mixture a stir every couple of minutes so it does not get too sticky.
4. Spoon the marshmallow mixture into the popcorn and toasted rice cereal.
5. Fold in most of the chocolate chips,  fudge and pretzels, keeping a few aside for decoration.
6. Transfer the mixture to the dish and add the last few chocolate chips, pieces of fudge and pretzels.
7. Fold the baking paper over the mixture, pressing it all tightly so the squares hold together when you cut them.
8. Melt the dark chocolate in 20 second blasts the microwave. Using a spoon, drizzle over the bars. Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours to set before slicing using a sharp knife.

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Disclosure: This recipe was commissioned by Butterkist.