Caramel S'Mores Popcorn Balls

Like the cookies I posted yesterday, I donated these popcorn balls to The Auction at our family reunion. The tin of 2 dozen popcorn balls sold for $35. It surely would have gone higher - my sister really wanted these, but so did one of my cousins. They were neck and neck for a while, but my sister's husband wouldn't let her bid any higher and so my cousin won them. Boy, was my sister upset with her poor hubby! But I was able to pacify her with a couple extra popcorn balls I had brought that didn't go in the auction tin, as well as with the promise that the recipe would go on my blog.

Caramel S'Mores Popcorn Balls
1 cup unpopped corn, popped
2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup light corn syrup (I substituted honey, and it worked fine)
1 sleeve graham crackers, broken into bite-sized pieces
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup chocolate chips

Pop corn; keep warm in very low oven. In heavy saucepan, combine sugar, butter, and corn syrup. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and sugar is completely dissolved. Pour mixture over popped corn and stir to coat evenly. Allow the mixture to slightly cool (if you cool it too much it will harden be more difficult to form into balls); add crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate chips. Stir in very gently - the marshmallows and chocolate will melt, but you want to avoid spreading them too much.


Shape mixture into balls, and wrap in plastic wrap.


If you can, wait until the popcorn balls are cooled before eating them. But if you can't wait, that's okay too. ;-)

Here's a picture of the tin as we filled it. Don't they look tasty?