Easy Chocolate Drizzled Popcorn

I first made this easy chocolate drizzled popcorn for a small gift to my PTO Executive Board. I had been trying to figure out what to do, as I wanted to do something meaningful but not chintzy but I had ten people to buy for, so I refused to go all out.

I came up with what turned out to be a brilliant solution. They all loved it, and it was a treat for them and something they would never make for themselves.

This chocolate drizzled popcorn is totally easy. I’m now debating doing the same thing for teacher gifts at the end of the year since we have a teacher, two aides, and three to four therapists per child, which gets awfully expensive.

Oh, plus two bus drivers per child. Yep, I think we’re going down this road.

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What kind of chocolate melts best?

When you plan to melt chocolate, you want to use a high quality chocolate and not chocolate chips, as there are additional ingredients in chocolate chips and the like that help them hold their shapes, and they tend to get dry instead of smooth when melted.

For this chocolate, I like to use dark chocolate, but you can use milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate, as well. You could even mix the chocolates in layers for more fun flavors.

What if my chocolate doesn’t melt well?

Lower quality chocolate tends to not melt nicely, similar to chocolate chips. That said, it is possible to use it.

If you need to use chocolate chips or your chocolate seems dry as it melts, make sure you add a teaspoon or two of vegetable oil to the chocolate as you melt it to ensure that it turns into a smooth liquid. You are better off adding a bit at a time to create the right consistency, as you cannot remove the oil once you add it.

Can I add anything else into my chocolate drizzled popcorn?

You absolutely can. I like to keep this as easy as possible to just add the chocolate, and it’s delicious.

That said, you could add additional mix-ins to make more of a trail mix style popcorn. Mix the extra ingredients into the popcorn before you add the chocolate.

Have fun with it, but I have suggestions of what you can try:

• Dried fruit like cranberries or cherries
• Peanuts
• M&M’s
• Broken up pieces of pretzel
• Marshmallows
• Pieces of graham cracker
• Bits of Oreo cookies

You can also try my Snickers popcorn, which is one of my favorites. That homemade caramel corn is amazing, or try my marshmallow popcorn that’s better than any popcorn ball you grew up eating.

How to Make Chocolate Drizzled Popcorn

First, make your popcorn. I use the largest metal bowl I can find — thank you IKEA, btw. I follow the Alton Brown methodology, and boy does it make good and easy popcorn.

Pour just enough oil in the bottom of the bowl to cover it, then add kernels atop it. Cover the bowl with tin foil, and poke some holes in it.

Turn the stove on to medium/medium-high, and start shaking. Shake, shake, shake until it all stops popping.

Immediately add just enough salt to taste. If you do it while the popcorn is hot, it sticks better without being overly salty. You can, of course, stop here, but ummm go for the best part.

Lay the popcorn on the nonstick surface in a thin layer, like a silpat or parchment paper. While it is cooling (you want the popcorn to be cool when you put the chocolate on it), melt the chocolate over low heat in a heavy pan (I love my little Le Creuset) or double boiler.

Use a spatula to scoop up just a little of the chocolate, and then drizzle the chocolate over the popcorn. You’ll need to shake the spatula like you’re trying to get dust off a rug to get the last of the chocolate off it, but that also makes for the best drizzles.

Doing small bits of chocolate at a time works best, not that I’d know! If you’re mixing types of chocolate, let one kind cool before you do the next layer.

If you get clumps of chocolate, no worries. Just use your spatula to mix up the popcorn to distribute the chocolate. You can put on as much or as little chocolate as you like.

You can also mix white and regular chocolates to make it extra fancy. Since it was 10:30 last night before I was halfway done, I declined to do this.

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