Salty popcorn and sweet chocolate chips are delicious additions to crisp, buttery cookies! Popcorn cookies are an easy and fun cookie recipe that’s perfect for a cozy movie night at home.
Have you ever had to make the impossible choice between having popcorn or cookies as a snack? Well, now you won’t have to, with this easy popcorn cookie recipe that seamlessly combines the two classics.
Cookies and Popcorn are a sweet and salty match-up that will satisfy any snack craving, and these chocolate chip cookies with salty popcorn mixed in are perfect for movie nights!
If you’re a popcorn fan, be sure to try my homemade kettle corn recipe next!
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Popcorn in Every Bite – We’ll break up the popcorn into small bits to that it’s evenly distributed into the cookie dough. This adds a fluffy, airy texture to the cookies and gives each bite some of that delicious salty buttered popcorn flavor.
- Two Kinds of Chocolate – Milk chocolate and white chocolate chips give these cookies the perfect amount of sweetness and decadence. You can even switch up the types of chocolate chips to make these cookies extra special.
- An Easy Cookie Recipe – Drop cookies are the easiest cookies to make, with no extra steps or decorating needed. All you need to do is mix up the dough and bake!
Key Ingredients
Complete list of ingredients with quantities and instructions is located in the recipe card below
- Popcorn: You need about 4 cups of lightly salted popcorn. You can use microwave popcorn, air-popped popcorn, or make a batch of popcorn on the stove. Be sure to check for unpopped kernels and remove them before adding the popcorn to the cookie dough.
- White and Milk Chocolate Chips: I like the sweetness of milk chocolate with salty popcorn, but semi-sweet chips can also be used.
- Brown and Granulated Sugar: Using both types of sugar gives these cookies the perfect soft and slightly crisp flavor, plus brown sugar gives the cookie dough a bit of caramel flavor.
How To Make Popcorn Cookies
- Mix the Dry Ingredients: Start by preheating the oven to 350°F/180°C and lining 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. In a bowl, combine the flour with baking soda and salt, and set it aside.
- Make the Cookie Dough: In a mixing bowl, with a hand mixer, cream butter with sugars until smooth. Then add an egg and vanilla and mix again for 1 minute. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.
- Add the Mix-Ins: Crush the popcorn with your hands so that it’s mostly the size of peas, and discard any unpopped kernels. Fold the crushed popcorn, chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips into the dough using a spatula, or with your mixer at very low speed.
- Bake: Use a small cookie scoop to scoop the dough into balls, and place on the prepared baking sheets leaving two inches of space in between each. Bake for 10-11 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Top Tips
- Let these cookies cool on the baking sheets. If you try to remove them too soon they may break.
- Don’t over-mix the dough. Once you add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mix only until the flour is incorporated.
- If you decide to use microwave popcorn, look for a brand that is mostly natural. Movie theatre style or extra butter flavors won’t be quite right in this recipe.
- Use any kind of baking chips! You need 1 cup of chips in total, so feel free to mix and match. Butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, or dark chocolate chips will all be tasty in popcorn cookies. Toffee bits would also be amazing!
- Fold in the popcorn gently so that you don’t break it up even more. My Kitchenaid hand mixer has a very low speed setting that works great for this. If yours doesn’t, be sure to mix in the chocolate chips and popcorn by hand with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon.
Cookie Storing Tips
Keep these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. As with most cookies, they will be best if you enjoy them right away!
Cooled popcorn cookies can also be stored in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Other Cookie Recipes You Should Try
FAQs
It’s easy! This method makes about 10 cups of popcorn. Use some for the cookies and enjoy the rest as a crunchy snack! In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add ⅓ cup popcorn kernels, cover with the lid, and cook until all of the popcorn kernels are popped. Keep shaking the pot gently as the popcorn is made.
Switch up the baking chips to make variations on this recipe. Instead of chocolate chip popcorn cookies, you can make butterscotch popcorn cookies, toffee popcorn cookies, or peanut butter popcorn cookies!
I recommend baking these cookies right away after making the dough. If you store the dough in the fridge or freezer for any length of time, the popcorn will absorb moisture from the dough, and lose its airy texture.
Cookies and Popcorn are a perfect snacky match! These Popcorn cookies are sweet, salty, and super easy to make, so be sure to Pin the recipe and make it ASAP!
Popcorn Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups popcorn lightly salted
- ½ cup milk chocolate chips
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C (160°C fan oven), and line 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat silicone mats.
- In a bowl, combine flour with baking soda and salt and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, with a hand mixer cream butter with the sugars until smooth and creamy.
- Add an egg, and vanilla extract and beat for 1 minute.
- Add in the dry ingredients, and on low-speed mix until just combined. Do not overmix the cookie dough.
- With your hands, crush the popcorn so it’s the size of a pea, leaving a few larger pieces. Make sure that there are no unpopped kernels in the popcorn.
- With a silicone spatula, fold in the crushed popcorn, and chocolate chips.
- Scoop out cookie dough using a small cookie scoop and place on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between them.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes, allow to cool on cookie sheets for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Let these cookies cool on the baking sheets. If you try to remove them too soon they may break.
- Don’t over-mix the dough. Once you add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mix only until the flour is incorporated.
- If you decide to use microwave popcorn, look for a brand that is mostly natural. Movie theatre style or extra butter flavors won’t be quite right in this recipe.
- Use any kind of baking chips! You need 1 cup of chips in total, so feel free to mix and match. Butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, or dark chocolate chips will all be tasty in popcorn cookies. Toffee bits would also be amazing!
- Fold in the popcorn gently so that you don’t break it up even more. My Kitchenaid hand mixer has a very low speed setting that works great for this. If yours doesn’t, be sure to mix in the chocolate chips and popcorn by hand with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon.
- To Store: Keep these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Nutrition
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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