There is something very nostalgic to me about homemade popcorn balls. This year I decided to whip up a big batch of these sweet treats to share with our friends. These do not take long at all to put together and you can do a large batch of them in no time. Wrap each one up in a clear cello bag with some bakers twine and you’ve got a sweet little gift that anyone would be happy to receive.
Homemade Popcorn Ball Recipe
Makes 8 – 10
Ingredients:
8 cups popped popcorn
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup butter
Directions:
Place the popped popcorn into a large mixing bowl. In a medium sized saucepan, combine the corn syrup, water, salt, brown sugar and white sugar. Place over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat slightly and cook until the mixture becomes a thick syrup (about 15 minutes). If you have a candy thermometer, wait until the mixture has reached 260 degrees. But if not, just eye-ball it…..you’ll be fine.
Remove mixture from heat and stir in butter. Once the butter has melted completely, pour the mixture over the popcorn and stir to combine. Allow the covered popcorn to cool slightly, you want to be able to handle it without burning yourself, but you don’t want it to set up…..so don’t wait too long. Shape the popcorn into fist size balls and place on wax or parchment paper. Allow to cool completely.
Wrap up each individual popcorn ball with some fun and festive wrapping. I used clear cello bags, green bakers twine and a ‘Merry Christmas’ washi tape……..but there are all kinds of fun ways you could wrap these up!
Or you could just put them on a platter and serve them as is……….
Little ones love popcorn balls, so make sure you grab one for yourself, otherwise they will be gone before you know it!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Lindsay Wilkes is the owner and designer behind The Cottage Mama. She creates timeless, vintage inspired sewing patterns for children’s clothes. She is also a fabric designer for Riley Black Designers / Penny Rose Fabrics, author of the book ‘Sew Classic Clothes for Girls’ and can be seen teaching nationwide and online in her video series ‘Lessons with Lindsay’ sponsored by Baby Lock Sewing and Embroidery machines.
We always made these when I was growing up and I was just thinking about making some this year. You can also add food coloring to the mix before adding the popcorn for a bit of fun, we always used red and green, but I bet pink and blue would also be nice.Thanks for all your wonderful posts.
My Dad made these one year for Halloween when i was little, but he put KoolAid in them for flavor *and* color! Just had to tell you. =-)