Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Tasty Tuesday - Chocolate Drizzled Popcorn

Today is the last PTO meeting of the year. The president traditionally gives a small gift to the Executive Board. I've been trying to figure out what to do this year, as I want to do something meaningful but not chintzy but I have ten people to buy for, so I refuse to go all out.

I came up with what I hope is a brilliant solution. And if they don't like it, then I'm going to eat it myself. Ta da!



I made chocolate drizzled popcorn. YUM! (Not that I sampled any myself, of course.) And 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.

Chocolate Drizzled Popcorn

Ingredients:
Olive oil
Popcorn kernals
Salt
Chocolate melting discs

Directions:
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 kernals 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 sil pat or waxed 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 get clumps of chocolate, no worries. Just use your spatula to mix up the popcorn, distributing 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.



Fingers crossed that everyone on the PTO likes my: The PTO is just a hard kernel with promise without you. Your energy and life make it burst open with opportunity, turning it into a special sweet treat for all the students there. What do you think?

And of course, as always go check out this week's Tempt My Tummy Tuesday with Blessed With Grace!

Enjoy!

17 comments:

Unknown May 12, 2009 at 9:15 AM  

Amazing! You can make popcorn outside the microwave!?!?! Looks absolutely yummy.

Leslie May 12, 2009 at 10:59 AM  

What a wonderful idea for a gift! Looks delish!

Happy Tempt My Tummy Tuesday!

annies home May 12, 2009 at 11:29 AM  

tasted this after it was made with vanilla almond bark

septembermom May 12, 2009 at 11:30 AM  

Great gift idea! I'm sure everyone will be happy :)

Courtney@Booksnboys May 12, 2009 at 1:01 PM  

My mouth started watering at the title!
Lovely gift idea! I think I'm going to add melted peanut butter too and call it Reeses Popcorn :)

Lisa@BlessedwithGrace May 12, 2009 at 1:55 PM  

I love the salty and the sweet together. Sometimes, I will drop handful of m&m's into a bowl of popcorn. That is my quick solution to the salt/sweet craving.

Anonymous May 12, 2009 at 2:42 PM  

Easy and fun! Yummm!
Ginger

Brenda May 12, 2009 at 7:05 PM  

Looks great. I enjoyed the popcorn demonstration.

xxxx May 12, 2009 at 8:56 PM  

Yummmmmmmmy! I want some :)

Cookie May 12, 2009 at 10:34 PM  

Wow! That does look yummy. I need to join your PTO!

Roxane May 13, 2009 at 9:43 AM  

Oh that looks so good! Can't wait to be able to eat popcorn again!

Ryan Ashley Scott May 13, 2009 at 10:39 AM  

YUM! My favorite popcorn is chocolate & carmel drizzled... now I have a clue how to make it! I bet the PTO people went crazy for it.

Michelle May 13, 2009 at 7:40 PM  

Megryansmom - Why yes... yes, you can :) And it tastes so much better!

JAM - They seemed pretty happy with it... and a couple of the teachers seemed jealous, so I may go that route for end of year gifts.

shopannies - Yeah... I need to take more time and drizzle the white stuff on it, too. Next time!

septembermom - It's food, who isn't happy with food?

KCShipe - Uhhh, go for it. I'll let the peanut butter be your special trick :)

Lisa - Yep, salty and sweet rocks. I LOVE the idea of M&Ms. I may have to try that one day. Soon.

ginger - I'm all about the easy and fun and yum. It's the trifecta.

Brenda - Alton Brown rocks. He's my favorite food guy. And only partly because of the geeky explanations behind everything that I love.

Swishy - Well, move closer and I might share :)

Cookie - Hey, we've got openings on the exec board. The commute might kill you though....

Roxane - It is delish! Here's hoping that tooth heals soon.

RAS - Now you can make it yourself! I love figuring out those secrets.

Heather May 14, 2009 at 5:39 PM  

Popcorn is always a great gift! I make caramel corn at Christmas for my Grandpa and Uncle-in-law, and they LOVE it! I drizzle chocolate on it too and throw in some nuts!

I think I'll have to try making it in a bowl tonight, popcorn sounds good.

Hyacynth May 15, 2009 at 4:42 PM  

This might be the first recipe I make June 8, which is the day my braces are scheduled to come off! Yay popcorn! Mmmm, chocolate popcorn.

Michelle May 16, 2009 at 10:01 PM  

Heather - I think I must be the only person in the world who doesn't like caramel corn. Or nuts. I may add some caramel to the batch for the teachers though -- good call!

Hyacynth - Only a few more weeks, and yes, popcorn would make a great first treat! And chocolate popcorn even more so....

Angela May 18, 2009 at 9:45 AM  

Yum! This is an awesome idea - great job! I love stuff that makes enough for a crowd (especially for gift-giving purposes) - and I love popcorn!

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