When I was small, and we know that was a long time ago, my Great Grandmother, for Christmas, would make us popcorn balls and gingersnap cookies, mailing them from Idaho to our Wyoming home.
I still make popcorn balls for Christmas using her recip. Well, kind of.
When we were growing up, my mom would wrap this gooey goodness around a Tootsie Pop (sucker), that much I haven't changed. We use to give this treat as a gift to our friends and neighbors and sometimes I do the same. This year, I made this treat with our two oldest grand daughters, passing the tradition on to another generation.
The best thing about this recipe is the popcorn balls stay gooey and soft.
I'll give you my recipe though you'll have to guess how much popcorn to pop because I've never measure that. It's quite a heaping bit though.
3/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon flavoring of your choice.
a pinch of salt
Add a few drops of food coloring dye if desired.
Place corn syrup, butter, and sugar in a pot, bring to a boil while stirring. When the mixture is at a rolling boil despite your stirring and the sugar is dissolved, turn off the heat and add the pinch of salt along with the flavoring. This is when you can add a few drops of food dye.
Stir and then cover, leaving it for four minutes before pouring over popped popcorn that you've sorted all the Old Maids out of. You know, the kernels that didn't pop. Stir to coat the popcorn and butter your hands so the goo doesn't stick to them. Begin forming balls in the same manner as you would make snow balls intened for your onery brother, pressing hard to get them to stick together. Add plastic wrap to each individual ball and some pretty ribbon and it's festive enough for any holiday.
My neighbor, after receiving this recipe, made them each Halloween for Trick or Treaters she knew. These were of course orange flavored and dyed orange.
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