If you miss the Cinerama’s chocolate popcorn as much as I do, this is for you. I personally prefer about a 50/50 mix of “buttered” and chocolate. (“Buttered” because there is no butter in a movie theater style popcorn, they use Flavacol butter flavored salt.) Kendall is more a 66/33 chocolate to “buttered” person.
I’ll provide Amazon links for the harder to find items, but if you can find them other places please go for it.
As for sizing this recipe, you’ll need to experiment a bit. What will fit in your pot? How much do you want to make? I personally can handle a pretty big sized mixing bowl to myself, but that’s not necessarily a “healthy” or “responsible” choice. This recipe will be for 8oz total unpopped popcorn, enough to completely fill a 5qt mixing bowl when popped.
For my preferred mix, you need to make two batches. If you want all chocolate, you can skip the “buttered” instructions and you only need to do it in one.
Ingredients
Mushroom style popcorn (Amazon link)
Gold Medal Chocolate Glaze Pop (Amazon link)
Coconut Oil (preferably refined)
If you want to make a chocolate/”buttered” mix:
Butterfly style popcorn (the normal kernels you probably already have)
Flavacol Seasoning popcorn salt (Amazon link)
Method
Place a large pot (make sure you have a lid that fits) over medium-high heat. Add a few tablespoons of coconut oil in the pot and let it fully melt – you just need enough to fully cover the bottom of the pot.
— For “buttered” popcorn —
Add 4oz “butterfly” style popcorn kernels to the pot, and sprinkle in 1/2tsp Flavacol seasoning salt. (For different amounts of popcorn, check the Flavacol package for recommended amount.)
Place the lid on the pot, and gently shake the pot back and forth over the heat. After a minute or two, the kernels will begin to pop. Keep shaking the pot steadily until the popcorn popping slows. Once there are a few seconds between pops, remove from the heat, take off the lid, and dump the popcorn into a large bowl.
–For Chocolate popcorn —
Put the pot back on the heat, and add another tablespoon or two of coconut oil to the pot and let it fully melt. When melted it should fully cover the bottom of your pot.
Add 4oz of Mushroom style popcorn kernels to the pot, then sprinkle in 2oz of Chocolate Glaze Pop powder. (The ratio for this is always 2:1, regardless of the amount of popcorn you use. Easy!)
Place the lid on the pot, and gently shake the pot back and forth over the heat. After a minute or two, the kernels will begin to pop. Keep shaking the pot steadily until the popcorn popping slows then remove from the heat. Do not wait quite as long as with the buttered popcorn, and once the popping slows remove from the heat. If you leave it on too long you can scorch the chocolate glaze.
If you have made both “buttered” and chocolate, you’ll want to mix them together. If your serving bowl is large enough, dump both of them into it and shake it around, either covering with a lid or using plastic wrap or aluminum foil to cover the bowl. If not, you can return all of the popcorn to the popping pot, put the lid back on, and shake it around.
Notes
This is purposely a movie theater style recipe. If you want to do a more homestyle buttered popcorn instead of using Flavacol, go for it! But this is the most true to Cinerama recipe I have managed.
Fortunately, it appears that for popcorn kernels and the chocolate glaze powder 1oz by weight also very closely equals 1oz by volume. So measure however you’d like.
You do NOT need extra salt here if you’re using the “buttered” popcorn recipe. If you aren’t, and you still want to do a mix, you’ll probably want at least a bit of salt on your buttered half.
Don’t heat your pot over too high a heat. You can easily burn the chocolate glaze.
The Mushroom style kernels are better for the chocolate glaze because they hold more of it. They are not 100% necessary, but they will provide a better end result than the butterfly style kernels for the chocolate specifically. For buttered, stick with your regular stuff.
If you’ve got a Whirlypop machine, feel free to use it. I don’t have one, and haven’t used one myself, but from what I’ve read they do fine with the chocolate glaze. Pop as you normally would, but again be cautious not to go too long with the chocolate to avoid burning.
