The Sparkly Chocolate Popcorn Balls were the result of our collaboration with Anita at the Hungry Couple blog. She whipped up an awards-show season dessert, namely these chocolate popcorn balls that sparkle and you gotta love other ways to use our metallic silver rim sugar! This sweet treat is a definite must for your movie night fun or binge-watching TV sessions. We’re making a batch of these to enjoy while watching the red carpet.
One key warning: Making popcorn balls as a popcorn treat can be a very sticky process. It’s also a hands-on kind of kitchen project. So be sure to make these before you put on your fancy dress!
Sparkly Chocolate Popcorn Balls
- Total Time: 20 min
- Yield: 6 to 7 popcorn balls 1x
Ingredients
For the Popcorn Balls:
- 3/4 Cup sugar
- 1/4 Cup corn syrup
- 1/4 Cup water
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 Teaspoon salt
- 6 Cups plain popped popcorn
- 1/2 Cup chocolate chips
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- Dell Cove Spices & More’s popcorn seasonings
- Dell Cove Spices & More’s Metallic Silver cocktail rim sugar
Instructions
Add the sugar, corn syrup and water to a large pot and simmer on medium low heat, stirring often, until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the butter, vanilla and salt until combined. Remove pan from heat, and then stir in the popcorn.
Note that you need to let the popcorn cool slightly before using a 1.5 oz scoop to form the balls or they won’t hold together. If the popcorn cools too much to scoop, put the pan back over a very low heat, warm the mixture slightly, then remove the pan from the heat to cool it back down.
Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave and stir in the butter until smooth. Drizzle over the finished popcorn balls. Sprinkle on the popcorn seasoning of your choice, as well as the Metallic Silver cocktail sugar, and serve.
Notes
Popcorn trivia for your movie night fun: While popcorn is typically seen as a snack food today, popcorn used to be enjoyed as a popular breakfast food. Food historians have traced the popcorn-as-a-breakfast-food (kind of like us eating puffed rice as cereal) trend back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In fact, long before the Kellogg family was making corn flakes, Ella Kellogg apparently started her days with popcorn ground with milk or cream and called popcorn “an excellent food.” We couldn’t agree more!