Looking for something fun, cheap and colorful to serve at a
party? I was, and I found this in my lovely box of McCall’s Great American
Recipe Card Collection from 1973. So long as you don’t mind getting your hands
DIRTY, you’ll have fun with these Popcorn Balls!
My daughter and I made them for a holiday party – they’re
called Christmas Popcorn Balls – but we felt the subdued colors shown on the
recipe card were WAY TOO SUBTLE! So we went heavy on the Jell-O (Jell-O used to
provide sweetness and color to pop corn? Oh YEAH!!!) and added a lot (quite a
lot actually) of food coloring. Usually I avoid the stuff, but come on – for the
holidays? Go crazy. We did!
These balls are fun to make and they have that sweet-salty
thing going on that just works, thanks to the aforementioned Jell-O as well as
chopped peanuts. I think perhaps I preferred the other flavored popcorns I have
made just because there was less mess and goo all over your hands (see recipe for Pink Party Pop Corn here) but they are fun and tasty, and we will make them again. Just plan
on spending more time than you thought humanly possible trying to roll the damn
stuff into balls, while at the same time scraping it off your hands… this
without just giving up and eating handfuls. Actually, I discovered that if the stuff
is mostly cooled off it is much easier to form into balls, and then you also
don’t burn your flesh with boiling Jell-O. Um yeah… popcorn balls.
Ingredients - yes, Jell-O!!!
Hot Jell-O with food coloring - how can you go wrong???
Here we are at the Christmas party with the Pop Corn Balls! Happy Holidays :)
