Gluten-Free Homemade Honey Popcorn Balls
Gluten-Free Homemade Honey Popcorn Balls are a healthy alternative to regular popcorn balls, and they’re easy to make!
These honey-sweetened popcorn balls are the perfect fall treat! With just four ingredients, they’re quick and simple enough for kids to help with.
My 16-year-old daughter is our resident chef. She loves cooking, and she’s good at it. But what amazes me the most is her ability to come up with delicious recipes!
Last week I shared our recipe for Easy Popcorn Balls. That recipe is a favorite with my kids because marshmallows. 🙂 They love them for some reason!
Even though my kids love marshmallows, my husband and I prefer to keep the sugar to a minimum. So, we only rarely make the easy marshmallow popcorn balls recipe. When my kids are craving popcorn balls, I request they make these gluten-free homemade honey popcorn balls.
And everyone is happy! These popcorn balls are healthy, but they’re also tasty! My kids love them, and I love that they’ve got better ingredients than the usual kind.
Gluten-Free Homemade Honey Popcorn Balls
Several years ago, my daughter came up with this recipe for honey-sweetened popcorn balls (I mentioned it here in this post from February 2013). Now she makes it from memory, and I had to request that she write it down for me (a regular occurrence at our house, since I’m often trying to recreate one of her recipes!).
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Supplies Needed for This Recipe
Here are a few basic kitchen tools and supplies you may need:
- Popcorn air popper or pop corn on the stove in a large pan
- Large mixing bowl
- Measuring cups
- Glass measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
How to Make Gluten Free Homemade Honey Popcorn Balls
Ingredients:
- 1-2 cups un-popped popcorn (how many cups depends on the size of your kernels—we aim for about 6-12 cups popped popcorn)
- 1 cup butter
- 1 1/2 cup honey
- 4 tsp arrowroot powder
Instructions:
- Pop the popcorn in an air popper (like this one), and put in a large bowl.
- In a medium saucepan, melt butter, honey, and arrowroot powder together over medium heat. Stir constantly.
- Let mixture come to a boil and let it cook (while stirring) for about 5 minutes to thicken. Remove from heat.
- Pour half of the honey mixture over the bowl of popcorn. Using two forks, toss to coat the popcorn with the honey. Then pour the rest of the honey mixture over the rest of the popcorn, attempting to cover every piece.
- Allow the popcorn to cool a bit, then form into balls with buttered hands.
- Lay the balls on waxed paper (or parchment paper) and allow to harden. (If it’s not hardening fast enough, the balls can be put into the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.)
Printable Recipe
Gluten-Free Homemade Honey Popcorn Balls
Ingredients
- 1-2 cups un-popped popcorn (to make 6-12 cups popped popcorn)
- 1 cup butter
- 1 1/2 cup honey
- 4 tsp arrowroot powder
Instructions
- Pop the popcorn in an air popper, and put in a large bowl.
- In a medium saucepan, melt butter, honey, and arrowroot powder together over medium heat. Stir constantly.
- Let mixture come to a boil and let it cook (while stirring) for about 5 minutes to thicken. Remove from heat.
- Pour half of the honey mixture over the bowl of popcorn. Using two forks, toss to coat the popcorn with the honey. Then pour the rest of the honey mixture over the rest of the popcorn, attempting to cover every piece.
- Allow the popcorn to cool a bit, then form into balls with buttered hands.
- Lay the balls on waxed paper and allow to harden. (If it's not hardening fast enough, the balls can be put into the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.)
We hope you enjoy these healthy homemade popcorn balls!
How long will these stay “fresh” before going stale?? I want to make them for stocking stuffers but we’re still 3 days away from Christmas! Thank you!
My kids always eat them within the first two days, so I’m not exactly sure, but they should be good for several days at least!
Joy, it sounds delicious! How wonderful to have a daughter who likes to cook! I love the sound of the popcorn balls so I’m pinning it.
Thank you, Florence! I love sharing the cooking duties with my kids! 🙂
We’re featuring you this Wednesday on the Homestead Blog Hop! Thanks for sharing a healthier alternative and fun treat! Can’t wait to see what you share this week 🙂
Thanks so much for the feature, Kelly!! 🙂
That looks delicious!
Thank you, Angela!