Age group(s) for this recipe:
Preschool and Younger
Elementary School
Middle School
High School & Beyond

Estimated time:
30-45 min.

Number of servings:
at least 12

Ingredients: (Hit your return key to start a new line)
Popcorn, popped (at least 20 cups, maybe more)

16 oz. bag regular marshmallows

1/2 cup (one stick) margarine or butter

a bit o' butter for hands

Directions:
The recipe I started with begins with 2 bags of microwave popcorn. I think the syrup could coat 3 bags worth; worst that could happen is that you have leftover popcorn to eat! Consider using "light" popcorn for this, and don't add any salt!

Shake all the seeds and semi-unpopped kernels to the bottom of the bag, break the bag open and try to scoop out fluffy popcorn Only for the Big Bowl you will be mixing in. (Your dental work will be better off for taking that extra time.)

Syrup is made by combining margarine or butter with the marshmallows in a 3 qt. bowl (any smaller and you will be thinking of the StayPuff Marshmallow Guy in Ghostbusters). Microwave on full power 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 min., stirring about halfway thru cooking, and again upon completion, until smooth.

Pour syrup over the popcorn and stir until well (and evenly) coated. If you are a person who likes a high popcorn to syrup ratio, Go For It and add more popcorn!

When cool enough to handle, butter up your hands a bit, and mold the popcorn into balls.

When completely cool, package in basic sandwich bags and tie with colorful ribbon or string.

Other suggestions and comments:
Part of this is Adult/Big Kids only, because the melted marshmallow mixture can cause serious burns if mishandled. But unwrapping the butter, and dumping marshmallows from the bag is Kid Friendly. Sifting out the fluffy popcorn is something kids can do. And when the popcorn/syrup mixture is cool enough to handle safely, at the table, it's way fun for all! Have a sink full of suds and a washcloth ready to grab and clean those sweet little hands later.

We use air popped popcorn, and 2 monster-sized aluminum bowls. It's way cheap to make Lots, and it doesn't have the added salt and oils. It's fairly easy to shake most of the unpopped kernels to the bottom of one bowl, and transfer big ol'handfuls of fluffy popcorn to the other one. After the unpopped stuff is tossed out, we use the second bowl to hold the popcorn balls until they are cool enough to bag up.

I think the popcorn balls could be made Confetti bright with the addtion of M and M's or colored sprinkles; maybe roll the balls in a bowl of them while they are sticky, and then press 'em a little more. I didn't think of it until mine were too cool, and I was out of popcorn! The syrup is pretty much like what binds the rice cereal marshmallow treats recipe together, so it can be treated similarly, even molded into other shapes. For example, a large, clean Easter Egg (butter the inside) would mold popcorn nicely.

My grandmother, in pre-microwave days of the 60's, used to make marshmallow popcorn balls using the bottom of her roasting pan, popcorn, and marshmallows. May have been butter in there, too, but it wasn't a dominant flavor; perhaps a bit was melted and spread over the bottom of the pan, before adding anything else. I don't recall the marshmallows being melted down into syrup; in fact, I remember once she used multicolored fruity marshmallows, and they sort of kept their individual color and flavor, getting just soft enough to bind the popcorn. Sometimes she would add chocolate or butterscotch chips, and they didn't melt down into goo, either! My timing is not as good as hers, or the temperature was off (or both ;-) I watched her make them, but it was soooo long ago!
I can't seem to pull off the same success with the same basic materials. She took the secrets with her, I guess! I have no clue whether she worked from a recipe, and other moms and grandmas had the same recipe that year, or she merely looked in the cupboard and whupped something together because there were grandchildren in the house. If anyone can unlock that popcorn ball mystery, please speak up!

I have one kid in braces, and one with a gap where his tooth used to be, so these Popcorn Ball Comparisons are for the school Halloween carnival. No more this week, because da mommabear does not make popcorn ball snacks for Herself, and I am marshmallowed out! ;-) Izzit true we are what we eat?

Fluffy people know the
Winnie the Pooh song: "When I up, down, and touch the ground, it puts me in the mood,
up, down and touch the ground, in the mood....for food.
I am short, round, and
I have found, speaking poundage wise, I improve my appetite,
when I exercise."

Winnie the Pooh would also say that in one of the other Popcorn Ball recipes (Basic Popcorn Balls), honey could be substituted for half the corn syrup. Some kids really like it that way, some definitely Don't!