Caramel Popcorn Balls

Almost everyone loves popcorn and by adding yummy topping to it (caramel or otherwise) you can make a really fun to treat that takes almost no effort and can be made into lots of fun shapes. They’re quick, simple, and great for parties, or children plus you need very few ingredients and all of them are something that you’re likely to have on hand in your home. Plus these are also great gifts and excellent things to take to parties or dinners, not just because they’re easy to transport but also because they are extremely tasty.

Now to make your caramel popcorn balls you are going to need the following things:

five tablespoons of vegetable oil
two and one half cups of unpopped popcorn
one fourth a cup of butter
one cup of light brown sugar, packed
one half a cup of light corn syrup
two thirds a cup of sweetened condensed milk
one half a teaspoon of vanilla

Get a large pot or sauce pan and add one tablespoon of the oil to the pan along with a half a cup of the popcorn once the oil is hot. Keep the pan moving constantly, stir often and gradually all the popcorn will be popped. Remove popped popcorn and place it in a baking dish in the oven to keep it warm. Continue adding oil and popcorn until all the popcorn is popped.

In a separate saucepan (using a candy thermometer) combine the butter, sugar, and corn syrup. Bring it to a boil and stir well. Lower to medium heat and stir in the condensed milk. Continue to simmer until the temperature reaches 238 degrees fahrenheit and then stir in the vanilla.

Now in a big bowl pour the caramel over the popcorn slowly while stirring and turning it to get an even coat. After this is done you can either butter your hands lightly and form the popcorn into little balls (about three inches across) or you can press the popcorn flat into a cookie sheet so that you have a big square of it. Once you’ve done that you can either cut it into small squares to wrap or you can use cookie cutters to make shapes out of it. It’s best to use pretty simple shapes because complex ones will be hard to identify and could make your popcorn break off in weird places.

If you decide to give your popcorn balls (or whatever shape you made) away they are very easy to wrap and decorate. If you’re giving a large batch of them away you can wrap them all together on a platter using some colored cellophane and ribbons to tie the top. If you want to give them away individually you can still use the colored cellophane but you may want to put some plastic wrap around them first to keep them from sticking to your wrapping.

Popcorn balls are a really fun gift or treat and they work well any time of the year for any occasion so have some fun cooking up yours and enjoying this tasty dessert!