Hey everyone, Happy Holiday season from Ashlee Marie! I don’t know about you guys, but it’s my FAVORITE time of year! I get to spend SO much time in the kitchen it’s GLORIOUS! I love to cook and bake for huge meals, desserts, treats AND gifts! Nothing like homemade food for gifts for family, friends and neighbors!
I love love LOVE edible gifts, I have a HUGE collection of them on my site so if you like them too check it out! I also have printable tags for these Caramel popcorn balls if your interested! Just put your ball in a bag, add some bakers twine and a tag and your ready to deliver!
Caramel Popcorn Balls
Ingredients
- 1 C butter
- 1 C karo syrup
- 2 C brown sugar
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 8-12 C popped popcorn
Instructions
- Bring the butter, syrup, and sugars to a boil, keep bubbling over med heat until it hits the softball stage (240 degrees - use a candy thermometer)
- Add the sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla and boil 1 more min
- pour over the popcorn and stir
- spread the popcorn out and let it start too cool
- spray your hands with cooking spray and portion it out into 8 sections and ball up.
- Continue to check back and ball and turn until they cool enough that they stay in their ball forms
The key to not getting hard caramel balls is to not over cook the caramel. It is really easy to do so make sure to watch it. I like to pull it off just shy of the soft ball stage.
After you ball them up, the tend to keep falling apart, and the caramel settles. So just go back every few mins, ball up again and turn, so the caramel doesn’t stay settled. It’s a bit messy, but worth it for good results!
After the balls are cool bag them up, tie them up, add a tag and deliver! Neighbors, family, friends, school teachers and classmates, anyone at all!
Everyone loves them, of course I don’t even bother will balls, I just eat it straight… But then I’m known to eat a “test” batch of all treats before making more to deliver, HA! Gotta make sure they are worth delivering right? My kids love helping me test it out too.
AND if you love caramel like I do I have a NEW recipe up just today – Homemade buttery caramels, SERIOUSLY the best caramel you’ll EVER eat! And check out some of these other favorites, labels, hot fudge and homemade vanilla sugar!
Neighbor Christmas Gift labels | Hot Fudge Sauce | Vanilla Sugar
Leave a Reply