Halloween is just a couple of days away. We are not huge on celebrating Halloween, but in the spirit of the season I thought it would be fun to share a couple of sweet treats for the day over this weekend. Today I am sharing these delicious marshmallow caramel popcorn balls. <br /><br />These popcorn balls are super simple to make and contain basic items you may have on your pantry shelf. The best part about this is that you just cook up the caramel and don't need a candy thermometer! Much like a cereal treat, these popcorn balls are just that simple.<br /><br />I love to melt my caramel together in a pot on the stove. Yes, this can be done in the microwave, but I still prefer to do it this way. I fell like the sticky stuff takes on a different texture and is smoother and easier to work with when you do it on the stove. <br /><br />I melt together butter, brown sugar and a 16 ounce bag of marshmallows. You can use large or mini, doesn't matter. The mini marshmallows tend to melt faster. I had this bag of fused together marshmallows sitting in my snack bin and they needed to be used, so since they were getting melted anyway, I just went for it. I was just keeping things real. It has happened to all of us! No tossing those marshmallows! Just melt them for popcorn balls!<br /><br />This caramel is delicious and soft. It keeps the popcorn balls nice and plyable even after they have cooled so you won't be breaking your teeth on these. After you have everything good and melty, just pour over popcorn. I used two bags of microwave popcorn. We are talking about candy coated popcorn here so nutrition goes out the window. Use the popcorn of your choice. Microwave made it super easy. These bags have approximately 9.5 cups per bag of popped corn. You will want to have between 18 and 20 cups total of popped corn.<br /><br />Then put on some disposable gloves. I like to either spray my hands with vegetable oil spray or rub on some melted butter so the popcorn mixture won't stick to my hands. Be careful because this is still very hot! You won't want to do this with very small children, but you can put them in charge of the sprinkles after you get these formed.<br /><br />Pick up a handful and pack it together like you are building a snowball. Then place on a baking sheet line with parchment or foil to cool and set. I like to roll some of mine right into some colorful sprinkles so they will stick to the outside.<br /><br />Allow the popcorn balls to set for at least two hours. You will want to be sure they are totally cooled before wrapping in colorful cellophane or putting into treat bags to give away. You can also drizzle with chocolate for an even fancier version! <br /><br />I placed my finished popcorn balls into some cupcake liners to make sure they wouldn't stick to my serving platter. This is also nice to <br />...<br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mphy7CwFJv0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mphy7CwFJv0</a>