Traditional Popcorn Balls
Kids of all ages enjoy this popcorn ball recipe as an old-fashioned holiday treat. One batch goes a long way. —Cathy Karges, Hazen, North Dakota
Ingredients
- 7 quarts popped popcorn
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Food coloring, optional
Reviews
when i do them i usually use marshmallow it’s so much better we melt the marshmallows with butter in a pan then we mix the food coloring in different bowls. we then mix the popcorn with the marshmallows. we put butter or pan spray on our hands and form to ball. and there just am amazing
My mom used to make popcorn balls at Christmas. She would add some green food coloring to the syrup, form the balls, then stud them with cinnamon candies ("red hots"). Sometimes she would form the whole batch into the shape of a Christmas tree and decorate with red hots on the ends of the "branches". What fond memories,
Great recipe! And, they stay soft like I remember as a kid, not hard and crackly like the ones you see in stores. I'm sorry people rate you down because they don't have a candy thermometer and don't know how to use ice water and figure it out the old-fashion way.
This recipe is perfect. Delicious popcorn balls. To those complaining about not having a candy thermometer....how bout using your common sense to google making popcorn balls without a candy thermometer???? Cooking sugar is a chemical process so you cant sit here and complain about an easy and calculated recipe not giving you the the more complex version of a chemical process and its detailed steps. Some people use thermometers to avoid burning a batch of sugar and some can do without (which takes practuce and if youre here complaining about not having a tool needed in this particular recipe then ill guarantee you Will bitch and leave negative comments when you burn your sugar without a thermometer no matter how detailed the instructions are.) Candy making is VERY tempremental. But do yourself a favor and learn how to search for a recipe that calls for the tools you have (or in your case dont) before leaving bad comments and reviews on a perfectly good recipe. Good grief
Easy and delicious. Great treat!
To those of you with no candy thermometer, it's not really necessary. Cook to the "soft ball" stage--the stage where the coating, when you drop a small bit into a cup of cold water, forms a soft ball. Not a hard ball--over cooked--and if it doesn't make a ball, you need to cook the syrup longer. Google it for pictures and examples.
The recipe is great but i do not own a candy thermometer and dont know if the mixture was ready or not
Nice recipe
I do not own a candy thermometer? How can i judge when ready?
When I was a kid back in the 60's and 70's the lunch ladies would make these treats for us on holidays or special fairs and they would flavor them with Kool-aid (the unsweetened envelopes)--usually orange or raspberry!