Last night I watched the new Good Eats episode "All Hallows Eats". Alton made three classic Halloween treats. This morning I set out to make some of them. First on the list, popcorn balls. This salty and sweet snack uses sticky candy made of corn syrup, sugar, and molasses to hold together some salty treats. Here are my notes from this recipe. For the full recipe visit the Food Network website.
1. Make sure you use at least a 3 ½ quart sauce pan. Anything smaller and you run the risk of your mixture boiling over and creating the biggest mess your stove has ever seen.
2. You can pop your popcorn whatever why you like. Just make you pop 3 ounces of kernels like he suggests so your popcorn to candy ratio is correct. If you must do make your popcorn in the microwave, do not use a prepackage bag of popcorn. Those contain some chemicals your body could do without. Just follow my instructions on how to make homemade microwave popcorn.
3. Make sure you have everything ready when it is time to add the candy mixture to the popcorn. It will set up on you fast, so you must act fast.
The molasses provides a different, richer flavor than traditional popcorn balls. It might not be exactly what you are use to, but Alton's whole point was to add his own spin on Halloween classics. This is super sticky stuff so be careful when devouring. You don't want to pull out a filling!
Recipe Grade: B
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