By Death Star Popcorn Balls
While these were easy to make and tasted great, they did not stick together for me. So if you were wondering why the main picture is a picture of plain popcorn and not a popcorn ball, that’s why.
First step – pop the popcorn! Easy enough.
Then, in a saucepan, combine sugar, water, and light corn syrup. Heat in on low, and add in vinegar and vanilla.
Now here’s where things went awry for me. The mixture is supposed to heat to 270F, but at low heat there’s NO WAY it’s getting that hot. I kept slowly increasing the heat until I finally gave up around 250F. It was just taking too long, and at this point the temperature was set to medium-high instead of low.
If I had enough patience for another 20 degrees they probably would have stuck together just fine.
The sugar mixture is poured over the popcorn and tossed to coat, and then is left to cool slightly before you put butter on your hands and shape the popcorn into balls.
My popcorn was drowning in the sugar mixture, as there was WAY too much of it. And because I hadn’t heated the sugar to a hot enough texture, it never really stuck together.
Sure did taste delicious, though! I’m not embarrassed to say I grabbed a spoon and dug in!
Taste: 9/10
This was very sweet and delicious, despite it not looking as visually appealing as it should be.
Difficulty: Average
Most of the recipe is pretty simple, but with hot/boiling sugar you always want to be extremely careful! It can also be a challenge to get the popcorn to stick together…mostly this is based on past experience; even if you heat it properly, you’ll want to wait until the popcorn is just the right temperature before you start forming it. Otherwise you could either burn yourself, or it could be too cool to form effectively.
Cost: Cheap
All you need is popcorn kernels, light corn syrup, sugar, vinegar, and vanilla! And of course some butter or shortening to grease your hands.
