Popcorn balls! An easy to make classroom treat! (Warning: Do not eat these at home if you intend to keep your teeth!)
I am making popcorn balls for Monkey’s class. They are celebrating their 100th day in school with a popcorn party. Lee and I have about 10 pounds of gourmet popcorn available so I thought I would make some sweet chewy popcorn balls for the party.
They are simple, they are easy, and boy, eating one almost made my teeth fall out of my head.
The ingredients are simple.
12 cups popcorn
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1 package flavored gelatin
You boil the sugar and syrup, add the gelatin, and then stir in the popcorn and shape and let dry. After making the popcorn, it really only took about 10 minutes to make 13 small popcorn balls.
However, they are all sugar. They actually made my teeth hurt. I am not kidding, the first bite was good, until I started to chew and began to notice pain in my back teeth. Yeesh! I am committed to bringing them to this class party, but next time I will be researching the hippie peanut butter version.
I did discover you can pop plain popcorn in the microwave. All you need is a paper bag, a handful of kernels, and two minutes. It made the popcorn preparation a little easier, though popping 12 cups is no joke. (Make sure to remove the unpopped kernels before making the balls, otherwise you really will have no teeth.)
The end product tastes a little like popcorn, a little like Jello, and a lot like sugar. Hopefully the children will have a less discerning palate, or my sticky treat may go the way of the Dodo.
Actually, I think I am going to throw this batch out and try making popcorn balls with marshmallows. They should taste better, be healthier, and not send all the children into sugar shock.
Shudder
SavvySpoons 