Critters in the Hay

Ingredients:

  • 1½ cups sugar
  • 1 cup light corn syrup
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon green food color (optional)
  • 3½ quarts popped popcorn (remove any unpopped kernels)
  • 1 cup candy corn
  • Licorice ropes (black)
  • Small black gum drops or other small black candies
  • Red decorating icing
  • Tiny red jaw-breakers candy
  • Worm shaped candies

Directions

In a 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 a 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.

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