These red, white, and blue popcorn balls are super easy to make using the microwave. They will make festive and fun desserts for your 4th of July party.
Do you host family and friends for the 4th of July party every year? It's a fun holiday to celebrate because there are no major expectations like there are for some of the bigger holidays
All you need is some good food like these Red, White, and Blue Popcorn Balls and Patriotic Dip, a few festive decorations, and a fun group of party guests.
These multi-colored popcorn balls are perfect for this holiday. These crunchy and chewy treats are so easy to make that you can have 8 made in under 20 minutes and they can be served at an outdoor 4th of July picnic.
So. let's get into the kitchen and make some delicious 4th of July treats.
How to make Red, White, and Blue Popcorn Balls
- Start with some crunchy kettle corn.
- You don't have to go to a festival or 4th of July parade to buy kettle corn these days. They now sell bags of it in the grocery store.
- I like using Kettle Corn for these popcorn balls because the pieces have a light candy coating on the outside that will help to keep the popcorn crunchy once coated with marshmallows.
- Melt marshmallows, butter, and some colored (red, white, or blue) candy melts together.
- Adding the candy melts not only adds some color, but also adds flavor, and structure to the popcorn balls.
- If you want your popcorn balls to be really vibrantly colored, add some food coloring.
- It's not absolutely necessary, but I wanted a true red and blue so I stirred in a drop of coloring to the melted marshmallows before adding my popcorn to the bowl.
- Microwave all three of the bowls of marshmallows before adding the popcorn.
- As soon as you stir in the popcorn you can begin forming your popcorn balls.
- Don't let the bowls of popcorn sit for too long before making the popcorn balls because the marshmallow mixture will begin to firm up.
Chewy marshmallow coated red, white, and blue popcorn balls are easy to make and fun to serve at a 4th of July party.
- 9 ounces marshmallows, divided
- 3 tablespoons butter, divided
- ¼ cup red candy melts
- ¼ cup white candy melts
- ¼ cup blue candy melts
- red and blue food coloring, optional
- 12 cups kettle corn
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Divide the marshmallows among three large mixing bowls (3 ounces in each).
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Place 1 tablespoon of butter into each bowl.
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Add red candy melts to one bowl, white to another, and blue to the other.
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Heat one bowl at a time in the microwave for 45-60 seconds until the marshmallows puff up and begin to melt.
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Remove and stir until melted and smooth.
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Repeat for the two remaining bowls of marshmallows.
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Stir in red or blue food coloring, if desired, to make the red marshmallows and the blue marshmallows more vibrantly colored.
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Stir 4 cups of popcorn into each of the bowls until the popcorn is evenly coated.
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Immediately pinch off a piece of each color and form 8 multi-colored red, white, and blue popcorn balls.
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Store in an airtight container, preferably a metal popcorn tin.
These popcorn balls are best eaten the day they are made but can be stored overnight in an airtight container. Storing them in a metal popcorn tin will keep them the freshest.
Kettle corn works the best because it's already coated in a thin layer of caramel which will help to keep these popcorn balls crunchy.
Don't forget to check out this festive 4th of July dip recipe too...
My party guests always arrive at our house hungry so I try to serve at least a few really festive appetizers and desserts along with the traditional burgers and hot dogs.
My family cannot have a function without some form of chicken dip. For the 4th of July, I like to dress it up by adding cracker crumb stars using crackers that I color with a bit of red and blue food coloring.
You can see how to make and decorate the Patriotic Dip, here.
You don't need to do a lot to make your food table really festive. Simply decorate a white table by adding the colorful red, white and blue food, and add some 4th of July plates, cups, and napkins. A few simple decorations will finish the look nicely.
Over the years I have made so many festive 4th of July foods.
You can see links to all my recipes on my 4th of July Recipes page.
I hope you have a fabulous 4th of July. Let me know in the comments below how you prep for your party.
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The Partiologist says
As you know popcorn is one of my favorite snacks, making these popcorn balls red, white and blue is a party!
Beth says
Popcorn is my go to snack almost every evening too! I love it. I'm glad you like these patriotic popcorn balls. 🙂