Caramel Corn

This caramel corn recipe was posted on Skip To My Lou some time ago. I absolutely love it. I just made a batch of this Tuesday night. On Wednesday night, I made another batch because Tuesday's was all gone.

Di's Caramel Corn:

12 cups popped corn (I no longer have a popcorn maker and I refuse to be all Alton Brown and make it on the stove so I just use two bags of plain microwave popcorn)
One stick of butter
1 cup of light brown sugar (my box says "golden" so that's what I use)
1/4 cup of light corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt (I thought this made it too salty the first time so I use 1/4 tsp)
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking soda

This is how I make it: Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Add the brown sugar, corn syrup and salt, and stir until mixture comes to a boil. Stop stirring and let boil for five minutes. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in vanilla and baking soda. Be careful because it's very hot, which is the only reason I haven't eaten any caramel when it's at this stage, but dang, I sure am tempted. Pour caramel mixture over the popcorn and start mixing -- I use two big spoons -- to coat the popcorn. Don't wait to do this because the caramel will start to harden. Place the popcorn in one layer on a cookie sheet. You may need two baking sheets to do this. I find that if you eat a significant amount of the caramel-coated popcorn after mixing it, you'll only need one baking sheet. Bake popcorn in a 225 degree oven for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes. I use a spatula to turn it over and mix it around. Then I eat another handful before putting it back in the oven. Eat them up, yum!