Marshmallow Balls

My nieces and nephew, Cameron, Jayden, and Ashlyn, came over today for cooking classes. Popcorn balls were on our list today. I found these cool strawberry/vanilla marshmallows at Walmart in the Mexican food section. The taste of strawberry with peppermint was pretty good when we finished. At the beginning of our popcorn making session Ashlyn and Jayden had to try the marshmallows out and they passed their inspection.So we put the whole bag into the pot with the margarine and Ashlyn watched it melt. She knew when they were ready so she added the popcorn to the gooey marshmallows. Then I stirred them up. The marshmallow balls turned out to be a pretty pink color. Next I crushed some candy canes that I had saved from an after Christmas sale in the blender and we were ready to make our popcorn balls. Because the marshmallow balls were hot I made the balls first and then let the children handle them when they were cool. The marshmallow balls are very sticky so we sprayed their little hands with PAM. It worked really well to keep the marshmallow balls from sticking to their hands and the children thought it was great.
Next the children rolled the marshmallow balls in the crushed peppermint candy. The candy part of this was a hit with them. The marshmallow balls were now covered with a fine coating of peppermint. I had a piece of waxed paper ready for the children to put their popcorn balls on.Eating the popcorn balls was the best part. Cameron rated them as a 10 on a scale from 1 to 10.

1 pound bag of marshmallows (I used the El Mexicano Strawberry-Vanilla marshmallows from Walmart)
1/4 cup butter
3 quarts of popped popcorn
3 (3 to 4 inch) hard-candy sticks, crushed (peppermint candy canes)

Heat marshmallows and butter in top of double boiler or over low heat until melted and smooth. Pour over popcorn and mix well. Let stand several minutes before forming into balls. Roll in crushed candy. Makes 12 balls.