Caramel Popcorn with Chocolate Drizzle

Preheat oven to 250ºF.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring for 4 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla.

Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stopping a stirring to coat popcorn. Place on 2-3 cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Place approximately 4-5 feet of parchment paper on cabinet, spread caramel popcorn in one layer on it. Break up popcorn into chunks.

Melt chocolate according to package instructions. Drizzle chocolate over popcorn with a spoon. Drop M&Ms into melted chocolate that was drizzled onto the popcorn. Let chocolate cool for 2–3 hours.

Place yummy popcorn into bowls or goodie bags.

Notes:
1. To make this a quicker project, I used pre-popped, bagged popcorn. There are a lot of brands that are at the grocery store (Skinny Pop, which is what I used, Fit popcorn, Boom Chicka Pop).
2. To make coating the popcorn easier with caramel, place popcorn in warm oven for 5 minutes prior to coating with caramel. I placed the popcorn on the cookie sheets I was going to use to bake in.
3. For the chocolate drizzle, you do not have to use melting wafers. They are just easier to work with. If you are competent enough of a cook to melt chocolate chips (unlike myself), feel free to do so.
4. To stir caramel onto popcorn, you will need a very large bowl. I prefer to use grocery store brown paper bags. At the checkout, they will be happy to give you a couple.

Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.