Monster Popcorn Balls
While growing up with my Grandma Catherine, I always looked forward to her making us popcorn balls. She didn't cook very much, but these treats always stood out as a happy memory. It really felt like we were getting away with something, getting messy and covering our hands in butter and caramelized sugar. Truly a kid's dream. Now with our own little family, we can add this happy memory as a tradition to our Halloween celebrations for years to come.
8 cups unsalted popped popcorn
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
10 oz. mini marshmallows
1 box of food coloring
Halloween themed sprinkles, candy eyeballs, small candies, etc
1) Pop your popcorn and set it aside in a bowl that is slightly greased with butter or oil.
2) In a separate, smaller bowl, add your chosen halloween sprinkles. You will use this to roll the popcorn balls in to apply the sprinkles.
3) In a medium size pot, melt butter on low. Once it is liquified, add both the 2 tbsp. white and 2 tbsp. brown sugars to the melted butter. Stir until its blended together.
4) Keeping the heat on low, add the 10 oz. of mini marshmallows. Let them warm about 1 minute then use a whisk to stir everything together in the pot. Be patient and leave the temperature low until they eventually melt down as you whisk. Remove from heat.
Be careful pouring and mixing the melted marshmallows, they are a bit like lava in this state.
5) Add your food coloring to the melted marshmallow mixture. If you are mixing colors to create a new one (like purple), start with the lightest color then add the darker one to create your chosen hue.
6) Pour the marshmallow mixture over your popped popcorn. With a spatula, incorporate marshmallow mixture with your popcorn until thoroughly combined.
7) Once the mixture is mostly cooled, but not hardened, butter your hands and start shaping your popcorn balls.
After you roll them in the sprinkle bowl, they may lose some along the way. Don’t worry! If you have candy eyes or other small candy like Reese’s Pieces or Mini M&M’s, they are a delicious addition to your decorations.
8) Take your formed popcorn balls and roll them around in your bowl of sprinkles.
9) Once decorated, the popcorn balls should still be slightly sticky and you can add candies or your candy eyeballs by pressing them on.
Using two different size candy eyes makes them look even more googly!
For fun we made two marshmallow mixtures, one green and one purple. The contrast was nice on the tray, and brought a festive feel to our treats!
I used a microwave air popper, and it took about a 1/2 cup to 3/4 cups of kernels, done in batches to make enough. You may also make it in a big pot with about 2 tablespoons peanut oil, 1/2 cup kernels.
