Gingerbread Caramel Corn

1. Preheat the oven to 250 F.
2. Put a very large pot over a medium heat, and add the oil and popcorn. Put a lid on the pot, with a small gap so that steam can escape. Pop the corn until there are a few seconds between pops, and it sounds like they are mostly cooked.
3. Dump the popped corn into a large sheet pan and remove any un-popped kernels. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Add the pretzels and toss to combine everything.
4. In a tiny bowl, mix the baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and vanilla together so that the soda and spices are mostly dissolved. Set aside.
5. In the same pot that you made the popcorn in, over medium heat, add the butter, sugar, corn syrup, molasses and salt together. Let them melt and come to a boil, and continue to stir them for about 10 minutes or until the caramel is bubbling and dark amber colored.
6. Pull the pot off of the heat, and quickly stir in the vanilla and baking soda mixture. The caramel should get very light and frothy. Then immediately pour the popcorn and pretzels into the caramel, and gently fold the caramel into the corn and pretzels to try to coat it.
7. Transfer the popcorn to sheet pans (I divided it between 2). Put the sheet pans in the preheated oven (250 F), and bake the popcorn for about 15 minutes. Then remove the pans from the oven and gently stir the popcorn into the melting caramel until the popcorn is better coated. Repeat this again after another 15 minutes, after which the popcorn should be quite evenly coated. Then bake for a final 15 minutes, and then remove from the oven. Give the corn one final stir to coat the popcorn. Allow corn to cool on the baking sheets.
8. When the popcorn is totally cool, it will have a nice, thin, crispy coating. Store in airtight containers.