Have you made popcorn balls before? Are they one of your fall favorites? I will admit that I have never made popcorn balls before until earlier this week. Good Cook sent me some fun and exciting products to try out, one of them being their Popcorn Baller. I started thinking about all the yummy flavors one could make and made attempt after attempt to getting the right syrup consistency in order to form balls. It only took me the day (sad, I know) since I was avoiding the corn syrup and didn’t want to go out and buy marshmallows. In the end, I finally had some success and came up with a delicious coffee flavored popcorn ball. Maybe not completely kid friendly but hey, I thought it would be yummy and I love coffee… and I make kid-friendly popcorn all the time anyway. 🙂
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So first, go pop your popcorn. We don’t have a microwave so we do it the old fashioned way of oil and kernels in a stock pot. I put about 3/4 c. of kernels with enough oil to cover the bottom and a little more in a large stock pot. Turn on the heat and place the lid on (tilted). Watch them pop away until the popping slows down. Set aside.
Next, take a cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of instant coffee (I used a combo of Starbucks Via and Taster’s Choice) in a medium sauce pan. Turn on medium heat. Allow the sugar to melt down, stirring often. Watch it close and turn down the heat if you’re afraid it might start burning.
Once the sugar and coffee has all melted/dissolved, add in the butter and stir. Keep stirring until the butter has dissolved and mixed in well with the sugar.
Pour the mixture over the popcorn and stir quickly. The sugar mixture will harden fairly quickly so stir until the popcorn is pretty evenly coated. Grease your hands or use Good Cook’s popcorn baller and shape into circles. Let cool and enjoy.
If you only like a hint of coffee flavor, cut down the instant coffee by half or so. Also, I didn’t try it with this batch but if you really really like coffee flavor, try adding some instant granules to the popcorn just after adding the sugar mixture. I tried this with one of my failed batches and it was almost like eating sweet coffee beans without the grittiness of the beans (think chocolate covered coffee beans). Yes, I like coffee if you can’t tell. 🙂
Calories
Fat
Carbs
Protein
Yields 3-4
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Ingredients
- 6 cups popped popcorn (approx)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee
- 1/4 cup butter
Instructions
- Pre-pop the popcorn and set aside.
- Melt sugar and coffee granules in a medium sauce pot over medium heat. Stirring occasnionally until sugar and coffee has melted/dissolved. Add in butter and stir until melted.
- Remove from heat and pour over popcorn. Grease hands or popcorn baller with extra butter and form into balls. Let cool. Serve. Makes 3-4 balls.
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