Chocolate Popcorn Balls

There's all different kind of popcorns that you can buy out there

You can buy it already bagged up, pre-cooked, but I just love doing it the old-timey way

This really brings back some nice memories. I'm going to put just enough oil to slightly, slightly cover our pan

and then I'm going to put a single layer of popcorn in the pot

and you can see when I shake it up, that makes like a single layer. We don't want to overfill our pot because when it starts popping, we could have a big mess

Naturally, I had the pot already hot when I poured in the oil

You can hear the popcorn sizzling in that oil. This is dangerous because we don't know when one of those kernels are going to come flying up

Oh, there it went. I remember that my mother had a popcorn pot that she used on top of the stove

and it had a clear lid so we could watch it as it popped

But I don't even think they make those anymore. But maybe I could find one at a junk shop

I can't eat it fast enough. Don't do that at home, kiddies

I'm just having fun. And you can hear it. You can hear it popping

And we're just going to shake that pan because if I just left that pan sitting there

there's a good chance that the popcorn might burn, and we don't want that

There all different popcorns now that you can use instead of popping your own All different brands But I would recommend an unsalted popcorn for this recipe Okay the pot is

quiet. So I think all the kernels have popped. Let's take a look. And hopefully there's no

burned popcorn on the bottom. There's not one burned kernel in our pot. Now while our

popcorn is cooling, we're going to come over here and we're going to make our chocolate

coating that's going to just make these luscious chocolate filled popcorn balls. And we're

going to start with a half a stick of butter, always butter, sugar, cocoa, corn syrup. Doesn't

it seem like forever when you're draining corn syrup out of a bottle? Pinch of salt

We've got all of our ingredients in here now. We're just going to bring them to a bowl

And that shouldn't take very, very long. You know, I remember my grandmother paw making these for the young children in our family

I tried not to call on my grandmother very often to keep my children because I felt like

she had already done her job with her children and I hated to pawn her great grandchildren

off on her. But when I had to call on her, she would make sure she had these popcorn balls as a snack

for my children and everything would be all right. She was a wonderful grandmother

In fact both of my grandmothers were just the best I had one that I swear that walked around with a halo over her head and then I had another one that was spicy and I think it sometimes she had

little horns coming out of hers. So I had a nice variety. I was most lucky. The

feisty grandmother's name was Irene and she was the one that I spent many many

years in the kitchen with and the other grandmother was Nellie Lou and I have

fond, fond memories of Irene and little Nellie Lou. This has come to a boil and the sugar's

dissolved, so now we're gonna add eight cups of popcorn to our pot. A heaping one for good

luck. Oh, these are looking so good. And if you wanted to, you know you could even add

some chopped peanuts or pecans to it. It'd almost make it like a chocolate Cracker Jack, wouldn't it

I know those two little boys of mine sure did love these. So I think tonight while we're watching the movie

there'll be other little children around that'll love them just as much as mine did

So we're going to let this cool for a minute, and then I'm going to just mold them into their shape

I've got a nice coating on our popcorn. Now I'm just gonna pour down to our cookie sheet

and let it cool for a minute so that I can touch it

because it's still kind of warm. Look at the threads. My granddaddy was aggravating me

I was 15 years old and I ran to her and I said grandmama he won leave me alone And I remember her walking in and she had a sofa that sat out in the middle that floated And Granddaddy happened to be standing behind the sofa

She walked out there with her hands on her hips. And she said, Johnny, I told you to leave her alone

And he said, I'm not bothering her. Well, she walks out. He aggravates me some more

I run back and get her again. And this time when she comes back into the room, she said

I told you, John Paul, to leave that child alone, and I mean it

And she balled up her left fist, knocked him for a loop

sent him and the sofa flying over. And I walked around the sofa, and I looked down at him and I said

I told you to leave me alone. She was a sport, my grandma

Like I said, I adored both of my grandmothers. They were just so entirely different

And I have people say, oh, you're just like Nellie Lou. And then I'll have people say, oh, my God, you're just like Irene

So, and these are heavenly, even if you think you might be sinning

Because, you know, popcorn, it's a vegetable. How bad can it be for you

Not that bad. It's just air. And we all know air ain't fattening

These are actually fun to do. And after they cool off, the children can help do this

They'd have a ball doing it. And that's it. They're ready for the movie

Well, I've got all of our snacks ready. All I have to do now is get changed, and then we're off to the movie