Caramel Popcorn Balls
"The kids love helping me make these. They are wonderful for school party treats. Also, you can add almonds or peanuts for an extra flair."
photo by gailanng
- Ready In:
- 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 8
- Yields:
-
12 balls
ingredients
- 8 -10 cups popped popcorn
- 1⁄2 cup sugar
- 1 1⁄2 cups brown sugar
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
- 1⁄2 cup butter
directions
- Put popped corn in large bowl. Combine sugars, syrup, water, vinegar and salt in a 2 quart sauce pan. Heat to boiling over medium high heat, stirring frequently. Once it starts boiling stir constantly until small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water forms a ball (hard ball stage). Reduce heat to low and stir in butter until melted. Pour syrup over popcorn in bowl, stirring until well coated. Let cool slightly. Butter hands and shape into balls.
Questions & Replies
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The video for popcorn balls shows baking soda I didnt see it in the recipe?
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How did I mess this up?? As soon as I poured the caramel onto my popcorn, it shrivelled up to almost nothing. I made a whole new batch of popcorn and it just did the same thing. We tried to just make the balls anyway, and they just fell apart. How did I fail at caramel popcorn balls?? Super disappointed. Anyone know what I should’ve done? Thanks.. -
does this recipe work with coconut sugar?? I can take a picture if you guys don't know what it is? -
How much butter do you cook with. Directions call for 1\2 cup but when reading these comments someone says the 1/2 cup butter is for your hands... So how much butter do I actually use to cook with
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Do you put the 1/2 cup butter in to cook with the other ingredients or is it just to grease your hands?
Reviews
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Crumbled mess!! Mixture was done exactly as instructed. Shrunk all the popcorn into a liquid MESS -
I made these today and even though I made a mistake, they turned out great! My mistake was that I put in the butter with all the other ingredients BEFORE it reached the hardball stage. I panicked when I realized I'd done this because I had used up all my brown sugar and these were supposed to be for a birthday today! Thinking of a "plan B" should these fail, I dug up my old Betty Crocker popcorn ball recipe (not caramel) and reading it over I discovered the BC recipe does have you put in the butter with all the other ingredients before it reaches hardball stage. So I patiently waited and stirred the pot waiting to see if the caramel recipe would still work. I am happy to report, they STILL turned out great! One other note, I didn't have the white vinegar so substituted rice vinegar and again, it turned out great! I will make these again (the correct way). ALSO, because I'd made popcorn balls before, I knew it's always good to have extra popcorn popped. I think I ended up using about 12 generous cups of popped corn. I yielded 13, 3" popcorn balls and one 1 1/2" very gooey small one with the scrapings at the end. -
very easy, we added 1tsp of salt so we made a second batch all together, it's very chewy, it took awhile to make specially when boiling but it's worth it! -
This is the second year I have made these, they are so yummy. Takes a while to make but worth it. -
These were REALLY easy! Somehow I missed the water in the recipe, but they came out perfect without it. The key to getting them to stick together was to wait until the popcorn/syrup mixture was almost room temperature. Like other reviewers, I was able to add additional popcorn (I had made too much, anyway). When I made my second batch, I spooned it into muffin tins until it cooled down, then they were a snap to form into balls. Also with my second batch, I ran out of corn syrup so I used a little molasses and they came out well, too.
see 2 more reviews
Tweaks
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add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda with water dissolved.
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
I am a homeschooling mother of 8. We have chickens, goats and emus, as well as a year round veggie garden.
My children help me cook most of the time, so I tend to look for recipes that are kid friendly and don't take a ton of time to prep.
We are a mostly Feingold/Organic family and my main focus is good for you foods, but easy to make with a flair or twist.
I experiment a lot with known recipes and I have come up with some amazing ones over the years and love to share with others.
My ultimate cake right now is the german chocolate carob cake. My goal in life was to find the perfect sticky toffee pudding recipe. I have now found it in Carol's Sticky Toffee Pudding. This is the most amazing dessert (next to my carob cake) I've ever tasted.
