These popcorn balls (bites) make fun St. Patrick’s Day Snacks or holiday treat! Don't forget the rainbow candy tape so you can make your caramel popcorn balls the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time25 minutesmins
Additional Time5 minutesmins
Total Time40 minutesmins
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: American
Servings: 10-12
Calories: 342kcal
Author: LittleCooksReadingBooks.com
Ingredients
1Cupuncooked popcorn kernels
1 1/4Cupbutter
1 1/4Cuphoney
3/4Teaspoonsalt
2Teaspoonsvanilla
Cooking sprayfor hands and pan
AirHeads Xtreme Rainbow Candy Tapeoptional, for decorating
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Pop popcorn in an air popper and set aside.
In a saucepan over medium heat, add butter, honey and salt. Stir until butter has melted. Then, increase heat and gently boil mixture for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
Pour honey mixture into a large baking pan coated with cooking spray. Gradually add popped popcorn to the mixture in the baking pan, stirring to coat as you go. Repeat the process until all popcorn is added to the baking pan and covered with the honey mixture.
Bake popcorn for around 25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until all of the popcorn is a golden brown color–taking care not to let it overcook.
Remove popcorn from oven and let it sit for 5 minutes. Grease hands with cooking spray and work quickly to roll popcorn mixture into small, bite-size popcorn balls. Place each popcorn bite on wax paper to cool.
After cooling, fill a small bowl with popcorn bites and add rainbow candy tape.
Notes
Pouring the honey mixture into the pan first and then adding the popcorn will help reduce the popcorn from “shrinking” (which happens when you pour hot liquid directly over the popcorn all at once).The popcorn bites can be stored for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container.We used black salsa containers for our “pot” because they looked like a black cauldron, or a pot!