Baked Caramel Popcorn

We LOVE popcorn at our house. And if it's drizzled in caramel and baked to perfection, well that just makes a good thing even better! So here is a yummy recipe for baked caramel popcorn - sticky fingers not included!

Ingredients
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 quarts popped popcorn (or about 3 bags microwave popcorn - light butter kind works best)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
Place popcorn in very large bowl ( I have to divide mine between two semi-large bowls).
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt, stirring constantly until it comes to a boil.
Boil without stirring for 4 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla.
Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat. (You may not need all of the popcorn so you might want an extra bowl so you can add the popcorn a little at a time).
Place in two cookie sheets/baking dishes ( I use one big cookie sheet and one small) and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and put into large bowls, letting cool before breaking into pieces. (I have found that if I let it cool on the cookie sheet it will stick to it and make it very difficult to remove!) Now wrap some up and share it with a neighbor before you eat the whole batch - and you will!