by Rita Chandler

Created on: September 15, 2010

How do you think your child would react if he rang the doorbell, yelled "trick or treat" when the door opens and had a popcorn ball plopped into his bag? Thinking deeper. What if the popcorn ball was not in any type of wrapper? Yuck is right. Not only would it consider to be unsanitary but it would stick to everything in the bag. That is these days but back in the olden days (like when I was a youngster dressed as a witch on Halloween night) no child in our small town could wait to get to Miss Jessie's house so she could plop a popcorn ball in our bag. If you think about it, a popcorn ball wouldn't be a bad treat for Halloween, if it is made and packaged correctly. Check out the recipe below:

POPCORN BALLS

18   cups popped corn

2     cups sugar

1/2  cup light syrup

2    tablespoons cold water

1    teaspoon white vinegar

1/2  teaspoon salt

1    tablespoon margarine

Prepare 18 cups of popcorn as normal and place into a large heat resistant bowl.

In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine sugar, syrup, water, vinegar, salt and margarine. Bring to a boil.

Remove from heat and carefully pour over popped corn. With a spatula or large spoon, mix popped corn with liquid until each kernel is coated.

Grease hands with butter or vegetable oil. When mixture can be handled without burning hands but before it cools completely, quickly roll out 3 inch balls. Place each ball onto waxed paper to cool completely.

When cooled, wrap each ball in squares of cellophane or waxed paper, tying off the end with colorful ribbons such as orange, yellow or red.

This recipe can be easily adjusted to make Peanut Butter Popcorn Balls just by adding 1/2 cup of peanut butter to boiling mixture. Or what about Caramel Popcorn Balls? Just add 3/4 cups of brown sugar to boiling mixture.

So really Miss Jessie had a great idea for a Halloween treat all those years ago. Try making some Popcorn Balls this Halloween and all the children on the block will be ringing your doorbell.

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