Furikake Puffs!

Last summer I took the Brazilian back home to Hawaii with me.  On our trip out to the North Shore (by the way if you haven't watched the 80's movie North Shore with Nia Peeples- do it!  Cheesey goodness!!!), I had packed us a cooler with some local snacks for our long day at the beach!  My mom had picked up some Furikake Puffs from Bale (a Vietnamese restaurant) that I had tossed in the cooler along with some fruits.  I was so busy driving and playing tour guide that I didn't even notice that the Brazilian had practically finished the entire bag of puffs!! 

For Valentine's day I figured we could go off the diet, so I decided to try to recreate the Furikake Puffs we had on our day at the North Shore.  But really this snack is great any day of the year, you can mix it up and use the sauce with any combination of cereal, nuts or crunchies!   


Furikake Puff Mix
inspired by Hawaiian Airlines Cookbook (circa 2001)

1/4 c butter
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp shoyu (soy sauce)
1/4 c oil
1/4 c corn syrup
dash red chili pepper (optional)
1 box Corn Puffs (12.3 oz.)
1 bottle Nori Komi Furikake (1.9 oz. bottle)

*If you use the 17.5 oz. size box, just double the sauce recipe*

1.  Pre heat oven to 250 degrees.  Heat butter, sugar, shoyu, syrup and oil till sugar dissolves. 

Buttery goodness

2.  Spray large pan with Pam and pour cereal in. 

3.  Slowly drizzle sauce over cereal and sprinkle furikake over puffs.  If you like a little heat, sprinkle red chili pepper flakes over cereal.  Mix so furikake and sauce is evenly spread. 

4.  Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour.  Stir every 15 minutes.  *As you stir the mixture at first will seem sticky, when it's complete, the mixture will feel drier and darken in color.*

You can eat these sweet salty puffs of goodness alone, or mix it with popcorn, arare (rice crackers), maybe even peanuts.  It can be a little over powering for me, so I mixed a handful with some popcorn and it was To Die For!!  Seriously, I texted my friend J just to tell her how good it was- mixing the Furikake Puffs not only makes it last longer but it lightens up the snack as well!  Yipee!!!