Old-Fashioned Popcorn Balls

By Wollygator

Ingredients

• 2 quarts popped popcorn
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup light or dark corn syrup
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation

Step 1

Keep popped popcorn warm in 200° oven while preparing syrup. In a 2-quart saucepan, stir together sugar, corn syrup, water, butter and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Continue cooking without stirring until temperature reaches 270° on a candy thermometer or until a small amount of syrup dropped into very cold water separates into threads, which are hard but not brittle. Remove from heat. Add vanilla; stir just enough to mix through hot syrup. Slowly pour over popcorn, stirring to coat every kernel. Cool just enough to handle. With greased hands, shape into balls.