Vegan Caramel Popcorn Ant Hills
Source: http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/
Vegan and gluten-free caramel popcorn balls made with just 6 clean-eating ingredients and could just be mistaken for creepy-crawly ant hills.
Recipe type: Vegan, Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Refined sugar-free, Yeast-free, Grain-free, Nut-free
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 5 mins
Total time: 15 mins
Serves: 8
Ingredients
8 cups popped corn
½ cup raisins
⅓ cup + 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
¼ cup + 1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon virgin coconut oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
Place popcorn and raisins in a large bowl. Set aside.
Add remaining ingredients to a small saucepan and bring to a boil on medium heat, stirring constantly.
Reduce heat to a simmer and continue to simmer until thick, about 3 minutes. Any more than this and the mixture will become taffy-like and be impossible to work with. You want to remove it from the heat just before it begins to smell charred or burnt.
Remove from heat and quickly drizzle over popcorn mixture.
You have to work quick with this next step, but avoid being burned by the hot sugar mix. Fluff it around with your hands until most is covered, then when it’s cooled slightly (a couple of seconds is all it needs), begin to work into balls.
Press mixture firmly together, the sugar is very sticky so it will stick, you just have to press it together.
If there are extra raisins at the bottom of the bowl afterward, wedge them into the sides of the balls.
View nutrition info
For those sensitive to corn, popped sorghum can be used in it’s place.
You have to work quick with this recipe. I wish I could have taken process pictures to demonstrate how it works, but there was just no time. The caramel hardens really fast so you just have to drizzle on while shaking the bowl and do your best not to burn your hands.
There will be leftover bits at the bottom of the bowl. I had about 1 cup of popcorn that just didn’t have enough caramel on it to make another ball but there was still enough that I could put it in a bowl and snack on it for the afternoon!
If you’re not attached to the whole popcorn ball thing you could decrease the sugar mixture by half and just drizzle the hot mixture on your popcorn, toss it around a bit and indulge in a bowl of caramel corn. Kevin and I made some for snack last night and it was deeelicious. Although I didn’t get much of it. Kevin loves caramel popcorn!
