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Popcorn Balls
3 quarts popped corn 1 cup sugar 1/3 cup white corn sirup 1 cup water 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon lemon or vanilla Discard all imperfect kernels of corn. Put the corn into a large pan. Cook sugar, sirup and water to the crack stage, or 270 degrees F. Add flavoring and salt. Pour slowly over the corn, stirring with a spoon so that all kernels will be evenly coated. Shape the corn into balls and lay on waxed paper. Wrap in waxed paper, if desirable.
A plain hard-crack popcorn ball with no butter or molasses, so the coating stays clear and brittle. The whole recipe turns on the sugar temperature.
- 270F is not optional"Crack stage" is the soft-crack range, and at 270F the syrup sets hard but still yields to a bite. Cook it much cooler and the balls tend to stay tacky and slump; cook it hotter and the coating turns harder and more brittle. Use a candy thermometer rather than judging by eye.
- White corn sirupThis is what would now be sold as light corn syrup. Its job is to interfere with crystallization so the coating stays glassy instead of turning grainy; honey or maple syrup will not behave the same way.
- How much corn to popThree quarts of popped corn is 12 cups, or roughly a third of a cup of unpopped kernels. Measure after popping, loosely, without packing the pan.
- Discarding imperfect kernelsWorth doing. Unpopped and half-popped kernels are tooth-breakingly hard once glazed in hard candy, and old maids sink to the bottom of the bowl where they are easy to sieve out.
- Warm the cornCold popcorn chills the syrup on contact and it sets before you have coated everything. Hold the pan of popped corn in a 200F oven while the syrup cooks, and work fast once it is poured.
- ShapingThe syrup is near 270F when it goes on and the mass stays dangerously hot for a minute or two. Butter your hands lightly, wait until you can just bear the heat, then press firmly rather than rolling.
- Weather mattersHard-crack candy pulls moisture from damp air and goes sticky. Make these on a dry day, and wrap them in waxed paper the same afternoon rather than leaving them open overnight.
- YieldAbout eight to ten balls of roughly two and a half inches, depending on how tightly they are packed.