Caramel Popcorn Balls

An absolute favourite at kids birthday parties

You will need:
1 Cup butter
1 Cup light corn syrup
2 Cups packed light brown sugar
1/ 2 Cup granulated sugar
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp vanilla
15-30 cups popped popcorn. Less will be messier, and gooier, but I like it; more for a looser caramel popcorn.

Method:
Bring the butter, syrup, and sugars to a boil, keep bubbling over medium heat until it hits the softball stage. Add the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla and boil 1 more min – let it cool a few minutes so it doesn’t shrink the popcorn.
Pour over the popcorn and stir. For the popcorn balls use 1 – 1 1/ 2 batches of air popped popcorn for these balls. Spread the popcorn out and let it start to cool. Spray your hands with cooking spray or rub with a little butter and portion it out into 8 sections and ball up.
Continue to check back and ball and turn until they cool enough that they stay in their ball forms.

Additional Methods.
For gooey caramel popcorn use 2-3 batches of air popped popcorn for this – serve immediately.
If crunchy caramel popcorn is what you want, then use 3 batches of popped popcorn for this – stir and coat as evenly as you can. Preheat your oven to 250 – spread it out in a pan and place in the oven and bake for like 20-30 mins, stirring occasionally, until it crisps up.