* 9 cups of plain popped popcorn
* 1 lb marshmallows (I used 8oz or pumpkin spice flavored and 8oz of regular marshmallows)
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 tsp vanilla (optional)
* orange food coloring (optional)
* 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (optional)
Instructions
1. Pop your popcorn. I used an old-school popper from my childhood and had so much fun!
2. Melt the marshmallows with the butter in a large pot. (I put mine on medium heat to get started and slowly turned the heat down.)
3. Once melted, take off of heat and add in food coloring and vanilla if you choose. (I skipped this step.)
4. Stir in 8 cups of the popcorn. Only add the last cup if you have extra marshmallow mix.
5. Grease yourself up with crisco or butter and make balls out of the mixture placing on wax paper. (I had to wash my hands and re-grease up after every 2-3 balls...it was a sticky mess!)
The original recipe I found is here. The lady used pretzels or tootsie rolls to make stems for the "pumpkins" and then used laffy taffy or other candy to cut out leaves. WAY too much work for me.
By using the Pumpkin flavored marshmallows, I didn't even need to add pumpkin pie spice or vanilla and they automatically gave me an orange-ish/brown color. I did mix a bag of plain marshmallows in with the pumpkin spice flavored ones just in case it was an overwhelming flavor. They came out perfectly!
Since Halloween and Thanksgiving have passed, I think you could use plain marshmallows and make "snow balls" or add in some green or red food coloring and make these festive. Try them out and let me know what you think!
