Awesomely Fun Popcorn Balls

Hey guys, Julie here! I actually have a contribution to Cauldron Crafts! I know, I know, only one? It's a good one though!

I'm just not a huge Halloween fanatic. We go trick or treating and have a lot of fun with that every year, but I don't decorate or go all out making costumes or anything. So in my goal to find something to contribute, I remembered this popcorn ball recipe that I had. I made this for a Halloween party for one of my sons at school and they were a huge hit! 

Make them for your party, or to give out to trick or treaters!

I don't know about you, but I'm a total visual learner. So I'm going to show you how to make these all P-Dub style.

You will need:

For Part One:

Cereal, Skittles, Twizzlers and popcorn

A note about these ingredients....You can use whatever cereal and candy you'd like. The original recipe calls for Corn Flakes, but I had Crispix on hand. If you use Twizzlers, try to find the ones that are already cut into small pieces (I think they're called nubs or something). That way you won't have to cut your own. My store didn't have them. For the popcorn, you can use butter, but I use the plain kind for reasons which I will reveal later. Anyway, feel free to mix this up and try different combinations!

For Part 2 you will need:

Butter (or margarine), corn syrup and marshmallows (10.5 oz bag)

Grab a large bowl and throw in 1 cup of each of the cereal,  cut up Twizzlers and Skittles. 

Pop one bag of popcorn (and then pop another because you accidentally cooked the first one too long and burnt it) and pour it into a separate bowl. Now, transfer the popcorn into the bowl with the candy and cereal by hand, just grabbing handfuls at a time until it's done. By doing it this way (instead of just pouring it into the bowl straight from the bag) you will keep all of this from getting mixed into the good stuff:

At this point you can mix all of the popcorn and candies together, or just leave it alone. My biggest bowl was barely big enough to hold it all and I would have had popcorn flying if I tried to mix it. Plus, it's just going to get mixed again later, so I left it. 

Ok, set that aside for now, on to part 2.

I forgot to take a picture of this part, but you will need 1/4 cup of butter and 2 tablespoons of corn syrup. Melt them together in a large saucepan.

Once they are melted, add the entire bag of marshmallows and stir until melted. You'll have a nice bubbly mixture.

Remove the pan from the stove and pour the contents over the bowl of popcorn mix

The next few pictures were taken by my 11 year old because this is where I became a sticky mess. Before becoming a sticky mess yourself, grab a muffin pan and spray it with cooking spray.

Grab a rubber spatula or wooden spoon (something flat works best) and start mixing it all up

Now comes the fun part!

Ok, here's where I get philosophical on you. In order to not get messy, you have to get messy. Huh? I don't know how much of a secret this little step is, but it's something I figured out while making Rice Krispies Treats one day and couldn't get the treats in the pan without them sticking to everything. 

Grab a small amount of butter and spread it over the palms of your hands. You don't need a lot, there's actually too much on my hands here. You just need enough to get them a bit slippery.

Then reach into the bowl and grab a handful of your popcorn mix, and roll it into a ball.

Do you see how sticky this stuff starts out?

By putting the butter on your hands, it will keep it from sticking to you. This is also the reason why I use plain popcorn instead of buttered. You may need to add a little bit of butter back to your hands in between rolling the balls.

After you have them rolled, place them into the muffin tin to set. 

This recipe should yield 12 good sized popcorn balls.

And please don't laugh at my poor muffin pan. I bought it eleventy billion years ago when my husband and I got married. Ok, this coming Friday will actually make it 11 years ago, but it's gotten a ton of use and abuse, don't hurt it's feelings.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! It's a big hit with the kids, just ask Bug. I walked away from them for 5 minutes and found her with a bowl with three of them in it, just munching away!