Halloween is a time when even the most sensible of us cave in when faced with bags and bags of treats being hauled around by all the little ghosts and goblins. So let's do ourselves a favour and make an alternative to store bought candy: Good old fashioned popcorn balls made from healthy whole grain popcorn and all-natural 100% maple syrup.
A little splurge with real butter rounds off this treat with no added sugar, or corn syrup or chemical additives.
For public safety, the neighbouhood trick or treaters that show up at your door will be expecting store-bought wrapped treats. Wrap these popcorn balls up in a fancy Halloween treat bag to give to your special ghouls - friends and family.
Here is the simple list of natural ingredients for the Maple Butter Popcorn Balls:
- 1/3 cup popping corn
- Extra virgin olive oil spray
-3/4 cup and 1/2 cup pure, 100% maple syrup
- 2 tsp all natural butter
- dash of pink Himalayan sea salt
Have a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper ready. Preheat the oven to 250 F.
Lightly spritz a pot with the extra virgin olive oil.
To the oiled pot add 1/3 cup of popping corn. Turn the heat to a medium/high setting.
Place on the lid and shake the pot of popping corn kernels to keep them rotating in the pot.
Once the popping corn starts popping, keep shaking every few seconds to keep it from burning on the bottom.
When you no longer hear any popping, remove the popped corn from the heat.
In another pot add the 2 tsps of butter and 3/4 cup of pure maple syrup. Cook it on medium/high heat until the syrup gets thicker and reaches the "soft ball" stage for about 8 to 10 minutes.
You can test if it is ready by dropping a bit of hot syrup from a teaspoon into some cold water and if it stiffens when it hits the water, it is ready.
Pour the hot maple syrup onto the pop corn and quickly stir it together.
Once the maple syrup is well mixed into the popcorn, transfer the coated popcorn to the pan with parchment paper. Spread it around and remove any unpopped kernels. Sprinkle on some of the pink Himalayan sea salt Place the pan into the preheated 250 F oven.
While the popcorn is in the oven, use the same maple syrup pot and heat the 1/2 cup maple syrup until it thickens and reaches the soft ball stage.
When the syrup is ready, take the popcorn out of the oven. Transfer the popcorn to a large heat-proof bowl.
Pour the hot maple syrup over the warm popcorn and quickly stir it until it is all combined.
Spray olive oil on your hands and then form popcorn balls quickly, before the popcorn cools. If you work quick enough forming the palm-sized balls you can get 6 made.
I ended up with 5 and left over maple coated popcorn to munch on. Each popcorn ball is around 240 calories. Left over popcorn at the bottom of the bowl made a yummy maple butter coated popcorn treat.
Dig right in or let them cool before wrapping them up for Halloween treats.
See how I made these Maple Butter Popcorn Balls on my You Tube Channel:
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