Critters in the Hay
Description
Makes 4 quarts
Ingredients
- 1½ cup sugar
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp green food color (optional)
- 3½ quarts popped popcorn, remove any unpopped kernels
- 1 cup candy corn
- licorice ropes, black wooden picks, small black gum drops or other small black candies
- red decorating icing
- tiny red jaw-breakers candy
- worm-shaped candies
Procedures
- In Dutch oven, bring sugar, corn syrup and butter to a boil; boil 2½ minutes.
- Stir in pumpkin pie spice,vanilla, salt and food coloring(if desired) mix until evenly colored.
- Add popcorn and toss until evenly coated.
- Spread popcorn mixture in a single layer on greased sheets of foil and allow to cool and harden.
- Break into bite-size pieces and mix with candy corn in a wide shallow bowl; set aside.
- To make spiders, cut licorice into 2 inch lengths.
- To make legs, starting at one end, make three ½ inch to ¾ inch cuts to make four legs.
- Repeat cuts at opposite end.
- Leave about ½ inch in center uncut.
- Gently pull legs apart and curl down.
- Push wooden pick through center of body, leaving about ¼ inch exposed on top.
- Push one gumdrop onto exposed pick to make a body.
- Using writing tip of decorating icing, squeeze two small dots of icing into gumdrops.
- Press jaw-breakers into icing to make eyes.
- Place"spiders" and worm-shaped candies in popcorn.
- Remove wooden picks before eating.
