i am not a celebrity

I’ve been cheating on you and I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t love you anymore – it’s just that I’ve had my head turned by the new and sparkly (AKA my new site Fashion Forecast: London). As you well know, getting new projects up and running takes lots of effort and more time than you think. Can I make up for my bad behaviour by talking about popcorn? Good, I thought so.

Popcorn hasn’t always been at the top of my list for a healthy and enjoyable snack. Does anyone back in Australia remember those unnaturally neon sugary morsels that came in a pointed plastic bag? No pre-teen birthday party was without them. Or what about those sticky and sickly Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs? Do they still exist? And then there’s the cinema fuel that tastes more like chemicals than corn and butter but for some reason you can’t stop eating – until you break a tooth on the burnt black kernels found lurking at the bottom of the box.

This, however, is an old school of thought. The humble snack has had a makeover. Somewhere, somehow, somebody clever has connived a way of nixing the bits that keep our dentists in summer houses, while adding proper flavour. Et voila – a new healthy-ish, albeit a little pricey, contra-prandial nibble has hit our collective subconscious, and I’m hooked.

But what do write about when a boxful of Metcalfe’s latest flavours turns up on my doorstep? I could bash out a review, but that would be too easy (and potentially ho-hum for both of us). Instead, I decided to take a leaf out of Joy The Baker‘s book and make some cookies with the the new sweet cinnamon spice variety. Between inspiration and the time it took me to execute said plan, however, the pack had disappeared. I’m not naming names but I live with a husband and a cat – you do the math.

It was all I could do not to rip open the mega-bag of ‘heat and sweet’ and gorge myself until the pain went away. Instead, I put my thinking cap on and came up with something even better. Chilli and chocolate and cookies, oh my. So here you have it – my brilliant (hubris notwithstanding) chilli chocolate popcorn cookies. No, they’re not going to win any beauty contests, but they are chewy, slightly spicy and very delicious. And, while I know they’re not all that healthy, the popcorn is replacing the handful of chocolate chips that I usually throw into this mix. That makes them better for you, right?

You’ll find more photos and the recipe after the jump.  Continue reading →