Pumpkin Popcorn Balls

Using an air popper, make two to three cups of popcorn and set this aside. In a heavy saucepan, add the sugar, corn syrup, butter, water, food coloring, and salt. Set the temperature to medium. Stir this constantly until all of the sugar dissolves. Allow the mixture to come to a boil. Let the syrupy mixture boil until it reaches 228 to 230 degrees Fahrenheit on a candy thermometer. This is called the “soft ball” stage. Once it has reached this stage, remove the pan from the heat and add the vanilla. Stir it to thoroughly combine. Next, pour the mixture over the popcorn you had prepared earlier. Stir this until all of the popcorn is uniformly covered. Allow the popcorn to cool until you can easily touch it without being burned. Take some of the popcorn and roll it into a ball. Set it aside. Repeat this until you have all the popcorn-shaped into balls. Decorate each ball with black icing. Duncan Hines vanilla frosting is gluten-free and can be tinted to create black. You can create jack-o-lantern faces that are either scary or funny.