Whether you’re hosting a cook-out or attending one these easy and quick Memorial Day desserts are sure to be a hit.
Easy Flag Fruit Dessert
By: Corey Valley
Serves 6.
Ingredients:
- 5-6 cups of red fresh fruit. (I used cherries, strawberries, and raspberries)
- 2 cups of blueberries
- 3 cups of yogurt or white chocolate covered pretzels
Directions:
Wash fresh fruit and dry. Lay out fruit and pretzels to represent the flag stripes, and place a small bowl of blueberries on the top left.
Patriotic Popcorn
Ingredients:
- 10 Cups of Popped Popcorn
- 3 tbsp. Butter (Sweet Cream, Salted)
- 3 cups Mini Marshmallows
- Red and Blue Regular M&M’s
- Red and Blue Pretzel M&M’s
Directions:
Start with approximately 10 cups of popcorn. Make sure you get out all of the un-popped kernels. Once you have the popcorn made, salt it liberally.
To make the Marshmallow Mixture for the Patriotic Popcorn, melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a medium sauce pan. Once the butter is melted, add 3 cups of mini marshmallows. Stir until the marshmallows are melted. Turn off the heat as soon as the last marshmallow has melted.
Slowly pour the marshmallow mixture over the salted popcorn. Gently fold the marshmallow mixture in with the popcorn until the popcorn is mostly covered.
The amount of marshmallow mixture you want to add is really up to your own taste. The more you add, the stickier the popcorn will be so we suggest that you add it a bit at a time, stir the popcorn and give it a taste before you add more. Leave a little bit of the marshmallow mixture for the next step.
Now pour the popcorn onto a cookie sheet covered with foil or a silpat liner. Drizzle a little bit of the remaining marshmallow mixture over the popcorn but do not mix it up. You will need the mixture at the top so the candy will have something to stick to.
We added Red and Blue Regular M&M’s and Red and Blue Pretzel M&M’s to our Patriotic Popcorn. We also added a handful of Mini Marshmallows.
Finally, we topped our Patriotic Popcorn with some Red White and Blue.
Red White And Blue Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter (Sweet Cream, Salted)
- 3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
- 2/3 cup Brown Sugar (packed)
- 2 Eggs
- 1 tsp. Vanilla
- 2 1/4 Cups Flour
- 2/3 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- 1 tsp. Baking Soda
- 1/4 tsp. Salt
- 1 Bag Red White and Blue Holiday M&M Mix
Directions:
To make the chocolate cookie dough, mix together the dry ingredients (including the cocoa powder) and set aside. Cream together the butter and white and brown sugars. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Finally, add in the dry ingredients 1 cup at a time.
Add 3/4 of the bag of Red White and Blue Holiday Mix M&M’s to the chocolate cookie dough. This is a special holiday mix of M&M’s that are available from May to July. But you could also use the Red and Blue M&M’s from a regular bag of M&M’s and then buy a bag of white M&M’s. You can White M&M’s at most candy stores and at Party Supply stores like Party City.
Take a spoonful of cookie dough and roll it into a ball. Press some of the left-over Red White and Blue M&M’s onto the cookie dough ball. This will allow some of the colorful M&M’s to show up on the top of the baked Red White and Blue Chocolate Cookies.
Bake the cookies in a 350 degree oven for 9-11 minutes.