Raise your hand if you’re absolutely psyched to sink your teeth into sugar-infused gooey popcorn balls and probably break off a tooth in the process?! Anyone? Anyone at all? Alright, I have to admit that my attitude towards popcorn balls has never been one of enthusiasm. That’s only because I’ve had a few run ins with terrible popcorn balls. You know the ones – sure, they look mouthwateringly delicious on the outside but once your bite in? Either they’re so hard that you breaking off a piece is more like a wrestling match with your mouth – or they are so sticky that you look very much like a dog eating peanut butter while smacking away. Even so, I wanted to try making a bath myself – and with only a handful of days until Halloween, it’s crunch time – let’s brew a batch of bewitching popcorn balls.
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Brew A Batch of Bewitching Popcorn Balls: You Will Need
- 5 quarts popped popcorn or around 2/3 cups unpopped kernels
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup corn syrup
- 1/4 cup margarine
- 2 teaspoons cold water
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup marshmallows
- 1 cup candy (like candy corn, mnms, sprinkles, etc.)
- 1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
I nabbed this recipe out of my new favorite Halloween themed cookbook, The Unofficial Hocus Pocus Cookbook. It’s full of fun and delicious meal, snack, drink, and dessert ideas.
I added my own little spin to this batch of bewitching popcorn balls because I was going for a monster-themed look. The original recipe called for candy corn but I used sprinkles and eyeball candy. Next year, I want to make these with Reeses Pieces candies (basically drooling over this idea already).
Let’s Brew A Batch of Bewitching Popcorn Balls
- If you’re using kernels of popcorn and not bags, use the vegetable oil and pop the kernels – start by heating the vegetable oil over medium heat. Place three kernel in the pan and cover with a lid. When the three kernels pop, add the rest of the kernels, cover the pan, and remove from the heat. Hold the top firmly and shake the pan until kernels begin popping and then return the pan to medium heat. Continue lightly shaking the pot until popping reduces to around 3 pops per second. Once popping stops, pour popcorn into a large bowl immediately.
- In a saucepan, combine the corn syrup, margarine, cold water, powdered sugar, and marshmallows.
- Heat over medium heat, continually stirring until the marshmallows are melted and all ingredients are combined.
- In a large bowl, mix together the marshmallow mix and the popped corn using a rubber spoon until all the kernels are coated in the marshmallow mixture. I decided to add food coloring to create a dark purple mixture. At this point, add in any candy that you want to mix into the popcorn.
- Before forming the mixture into balls, cover your hands with the vegetable shortening. Form the popcorn mixture into balls and set on a sheet of wax paper or aluminum foil.
To add a little spook to your bewitching popcorn balls, toss in a few candy eye balls! I love the look of various sizes of eyeballs. Finish these off by sprinkling a handful of sprinkles on top before the mixture fully sets. Wrap the popcorn balls in clear plastic wrap and store at room temperature.
These bewitching popcorn balls were a big hit on our Halloween buffet table! They make quite the statement sitting inside a spooky black cauldron with their eyes peeking out! To avoid a rock hard popcorn ball, I keep the popcorn to marshmallow mix more marshmallow than popcorn. Doing this keeps the popcorn mix from turning into cement (who needs that??). I’m excited to try variations on this recipe! What do you think? How would you spice these up? Happy spooky season and until next time, peace, love, & light (after coffee)!
