Japan’s most popular popcorn brand gives us a great dessert that only takes a few minutes in the microwave to make.

A freshly made batch of brownies is always a surefire way to make people happy, but when you want those smiles to be extra big you might find yourself looking for a special ingredient to mix in. Nuts and chocolate chips are both popular choices, but we recently came across a recipe with a brownie enhancer we’d never tried before: popcorn.

The idea comes from Frito Lay Japan, makers of the popular Japanese Mike brand of popcorn, and they didn’t just supply the concept, but a recipe too, which has been posted on their website. Since we at SoraNews24 have zero willpower to resist exploring new snack frontiers, especially when chocolate is involved, we quickly ran out to procure the necessary ingredients and whip up a batch of popcorn chocolate brownies, a process that’s quick, simple, and only requires a microwave for the cooking.

● Ingredients
Mike Popcorn (Plus Fiber flavor): 10 grams (0.35 ounces)
Chocolate bar: 10 grams (0.35 ounces)
Unsalted butter: 10 grams (0.35 ounces)
Pancake mmix: 30 grams (1.05 ounces)
1/2 egg
Milk: 1 tablespoon
Sugar: 1 tablespoon
Cocoa powder: 2 teaspoons

Step 1

Place the popcorn pieces in a plastic bag and hit them with a rolling pin. You don’t have to pulverize them into a powder, but the recipe says to smack them enough to crack them into small pieces. It’s a dynamic, arguably violent start to the preparation process.

Step 2

Mince the chocolate. Place the butter in a microwave-safe container, cover it with plastic wrap, and heat it at 600 watts for 10 to 20 seconds, until it melts. After the butter is melted, add the chocolate and stir them together.

Step 3

One by one, add the pancake mix, egg, milk, sugar, and cocoa powder to the butter/chocolate mixture stirring them each in. Once that’s done, add in the crushed popcorn pieces.

Step 4

Place a cooking sheet in a square or rectangular microwave-safe container. Pour in the mixture created in Step 3, then heat in the microwave at 600 watts for 2.5 to 3 minutes.

▼ You’ll know it’s ready if you can stick a fork or toothpick in it and it comes out clean.

As for how to serve the popcorn brownie, you’ve got two options. If you’re not sharing, you can just grab it with both hands and dig in, but if there are others you’re sharing the dessert wealth with, you can cut it into squares of any size. We opted for bite-sized ones, so that we could pop pieces into our mouth like we do with regular, non-brownie-fied popcorn.

And they taste great! This isn’t a heavy brownie, but a fluffy one. You might expect the flavor to resemble puffed rice chocolate, but the popcorn actually gives it a mildly nutty accent, making popcorn chocolate brownies a fun and tasty alternative if you’re avoiding nuts.

They also look very unique, though the next time we make a batch, we think we’re going to try leaving the popcorn pieces uncrushed, for an even more unique appearance.

But whether you go the crushed or uncrushed route, popcorn chocolate brownies are sure to be a crowd-pleaser and conversation starter at your next get-together, and one that takes less than four minutes of total cooking time. Oh, and while Frito Lay is mum on the matter, we have a hunch the recipe works just as well with other brands of popcorn, in case you’re living somewhere in the world where Mike isn’t easy to come by.

Reference: Frito Lay Japan
Photos © SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
[ Read in Japanese ]