How can I make a panna cotta based on Jelly bellys? I want to make popcorn panna cotta.  I had a couple of ideas for this, either steeping milk in popped corn or (my preferred option) melting butter popcorn Jelly Belly beans into the milk and then making a panna cotta from that.  

These were to be served as petit four with a caramelised popcorn piece on top, and so I was going to make them in ice cube trays so each one was bite size.

However I wasn't able to get the texture right.  I tried melting different amounts of jelly belly beans in my milk, but they never seemed to solidify just going a sort of thick creamy consistency with the tops sometimes getting a skin on in the more concentrated versions.  Then if I added gelatine as I would for making a panna cotta then they came out firm and rubbery.

So apart from continuing to try different amounts of gelatine in my dissolved Jelly Belly mixture, does anyone have any ideas what I might be able to do to get this to work?

(I'm going to try using the steeped milk/real popcorn version again, but this wasn't that popcorny and tasted slightly of the oil that the corn was popped in.  It should at least be easier to get the consistency right on that one)
Grant Achatz does quite a lot with popcorn at Alinea. One of his recipes is available as part of the preview of his book on Google Books and is just about readable. Looks like he goes with the steeping method (although he's using water). I ate at Alinea recently and there was a popcorn soup on the menu that tasted exactly like popcorn, so it's probably a good place to start (continue?).  

A friend once made a "Movie Theatre" Panna Cotta. It was a normal panna cotta, but he served it with a Coca Cola syrup (just heavily reduced Coke) and some home made Cracker Jacks. It was delicious. So good luck with yours. 

Edit:
The basics of the recipe:


Cook 100g uncooked popcorn kernels (he does it stove top with 25g canola oil)
Add to 750g water, 7g kosher salt, 90g butter, 75g sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes
Strain through china cap, blend, strain through chinoise.