Ingredients:

3 bags Orvill Redenbacher’s Naturals light microwave popcorn. (approximately 27 cups popped popcorn if you want to use your own)
2 cups mini pretzels
1/2 cup cocktail peanuts, broken in half
1 cup butter
1/2 cup corn syrup
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons McCormick Root Beer Concentrate
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Microwave popcorn per instructions on each bag and pick out any unpopped kernels. Spray 2 aluminum pans (20 x 12 x 3 inch works great) with cooking spray. Evenly add the popcorn, pretzels and peanuts to the 2 pans. Put both pans in oven so popcorn mix can get warm.

2. In a medium saucepan on medium heat melt butter. Stir in corn syrup, brown sugar and salt. Increase to medium high heat until it comes to a boil then reduce temp to medium. Let mixture boil untouched for 4 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat, stir in root beer concentrate and vanilla, then stir in baking soda. Caution: mixture will expand and foam.

3. Remove pans from oven, drizzle the caramel root beer mixture evenly over popcorn, then stir to coat. Place both pans in oven for 60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove pans from oven and let cool. If you can wait that long to let it cool!

Note: You can use 2 large roasting pans for this, but I highly recommend the aluminum pans. The aluminum is easier and helps distribute the heat better, keeping the caramel from burning. The 4 tablespoons of root beer extract sounds like too much, but it really only ends up giving the popcorn mix a slight root beer taste.