Caramel Popcorn Balls (Video)

Caramel popcorn balls are the perfect Halloween treat; a gluten free and relatively low carb buttery delight that is simply delicious!

Halloween Treats

Growing up in a VERY small town we had a select few houses that made their own special homemade treats every year and EVERYONE flocked to those houses. One lady made homemade doughnuts (the BEST EVER!), another made caramel apples and a couple different ladies made popcorn balls but none as good as my mom’s.

As the years passed, so had many of the ladies. Some had moved but my mom remained and along with the others that had been residing there for many years, they kept hovering over her house on Halloween (mostly the adults) year after year waiting for their Halloween treat.

Now, I am not going to give you her recipe but I will tell you they were FULL of sugar and marshmallows. Making 300 plus popcorn balls is not small chore and I would often return home to help her throughout the years.

After many years passed, she started to dread it as each year rolled around. With my late step-father being highly impacted with dementia, I would secretly get them made up for her as she refused to let anyone down.

After pleading with her to let go of pleasing everyone and the toll it took on her caring for my step-dad, she FINALLY stopped.

There is not a Halloween that goes by that I don’t think about her popcorn balls, whether it was eating them, making them or passing them out to people begging to just give them one extra.

How to Make the Best Popcorn Balls

After making thousands of popcorn balls in my life and eating a couple hundred, the secret to amazing popcorn balls is making them ooey and gooey!! Don’t skimp on the sauce or overload the sauce with popcorn. Sure, it’s a lot more work but hard work is where all really great stuff comes from, right?

These are caramel popcorn balls, very low in sugar (almost none) but the consistency created in the caramel sauce is very similar to what mom’s recipe was like.

What you will need:

• Candy thermometer
• Extra-large bowl or pot
• Small whisk
• Medium saucepan
• Latex gloves
• Rubber spatula
• Erythritol
• Real maple syrup
• Heavy cream
• Butter
• Pure Vanilla Extract  
• Popcorn
• Air-popper

What to do if you don’t have all of these products

If you have never invested in an air-popper, use a skillet with a lid to pop the popcorn. You will also need to add oil to the pan (preferably vegetable or canola).

If you don’t have latex or nitrile gloves on hand, grab a stick of butter and be ready to lather your hands up before forming the popcorn into balls.

Unwilling to pay the ridiculous price for pure vanilla extract these days? You can substitute imitation or another flavoring that would pair well such as, rum, maple or coconut extract.

Don’t have real maple syrup on hand? Substitute with honey, agave nectar or molasses.

Normally, when making sugar products you can skip the whole candy thermometer and use a bowl of cold water to test the degree of what level the sugar is cooked to. Many of my fellow bloggers out there would say you still can fully depend on this method with sweeteners but I do not find this method to be at all reliable when using sweeteners.

Caramel Popcorn Balls Nutrition

This popcorn ball recipe is gluten free and relatively low in carbs. Each popcorn ball approximately contains 230 calories, 26 grams of fat, 13.4 grams of net carbs and 2 grams of protein. These numbers account for air-popping the popcorn and using the ingredients and methods we recommend.

How to make Caramel Popcorn Balls

Note that this recipe is for small batch cooking. After the popcorn is popped, measure out 8 cups and place in an extra-large non-stick bowl or pot. When making large batches, as we did, try using roaster pans.

In a medium saucepan over low to medium low heat (depending on the heat source) place the sweeteners, maple syrup and heavy cream in the pan. Gently stir the ingredients together with a whisk. Try to keep all of the sweetener toward the center of the pot and away from the edges.

Cook for about 10 minutes or until the mixture starts to color and then attach a candy thermometer. Cook until the thermometer reaches 245°, remove from heat and add the vanilla and whisk in the butter a couple tablespoons at a time.  

Allow the mixture to cool for 15-20 minutes until it has thickened. If it gets too thick, just return to heat for one or two minutes, continuously whisking. We want the caramel sauce to just come back to a pourable texture but not a thin consistency.

Pour the caramel sauce over the popcorn and stir with a rubber spatula to evenly coat all of the pieces.

With your gloves on (or butter lathered hands) grab handfuls of popcorn and form into a ball. Compress the popcorn while rotating your hands around in a spherical motion.

Wrap each one up in parchment paper with a string or in a sandwich bag. Will keep at room temperature for 7 days. Makes 6 large popcorn balls.

Have you made this RECIPE? Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

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Looking for more great recipes? Check out Nestle Inspired Chocolate Chip Cookies and candied nuts.

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