HOW DO YOU MAKE CARAMEL POPCORN BALLS RECIPES

Steps:

• Pre-heat oven to 250 deg.
• Place butter in a medium pot, on medium heat.
• While the butter's melting, pop the corn and put it in a large roasting pan. I used a disposable aluminum pan and a hot air popper (you won't need to butter the pan).
• Keep an eye on the butter and add the sugar, molasses, and salt to it as soon as its melted.
• Bring the candy to a boil and stir and cook it only till the sugar melts and the butter blends in entirely - just a couple minutes.
• Turn off the heat and stir the vanilla and peanuts into the candy.
• Quickly add the baking soda and stir untill it's well mixed. It foams to make a lighter, more delicate candy.
• Pour the candy over the popcorn and toss untill it's evenly coated.
• Put the popcorn in the oven for 1 hour, tossing every 15 or 20 minutes.
• Let it cool completely before breaking up and putting into an airtight container.
• I developed this recipe by hacking others because I couldn't find another to suit me. I made this for Christmas treats and it was INHALED, you'll find it tastes like Cracker Jack; that candy is made with molasses, not corn syrup, I got a box yersterday to compare.
• You can easily double this, but double the baking time too.

Steps:

• Remove all unpopped kernels from popped popcorn. Put popcorn in a greased 17x12x2-inch baking or roasting pan. Keep popcorn warm in a 300 degree F oven while making syrup.
• For syrup mixture, butter the sides of a heavy 2-quart saucepan. In saucepan combine sugar, water, corn syrup, vinegar, and salt. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until mixture boils, stirring to dissolve sugar (about 6 minutes). Clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Reduce heat to medium; continue boiling at a moderate, steady rate, stirring occasionally, until thermometer registers 250 degree F, hard-ball stage (about 20 minutes).
• Remove saucepan from heat; remove thermometer. Stir in vanilla. Pour syrup mixture over the hot popcorn and stir gently to coat. Cool until the popcorn mixture can be handled easily. With buttered hands, quickly shape the mixture into 2-1/2-inch diameter balls. Wrap each popcorn ball in plastic wrap. Makes about 20 popcorn balls.