Excellent Peanut Brittle Food

OLD-FASHIONED PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Butter a large baking pan; set aside. Combine peanuts, sugar, and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Set over medium-high heat, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
• Insert a candy thermometer. Continue boiling, without stirring, until temperature registers 295 degrees, about 6 minutes. When sugar begins to brown, stir nuts gently to ensure even cooking. Remove saucepan from heat, and stir in the butter and baking soda; the mixture will begin to foam up, so mix quickly. Pour onto the prepared baking pan.
• As soon as candy is cool enough to handle, use your fingers to stretch the brittle as thinly as possible over the baking pan. Allow the brittle to cool completely, about 45 minutes, then break into bite-size pieces.

MOM'S BEST PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Grease a large cookie sheet. Set aside.
• In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, over medium heat, bring to a boil sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Stir in peanuts. Set candy thermometer in place, and continue cooking. Stir frequently until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), or until a small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into hard and brittle threads.
• Remove from heat; immediately stir in butter and baking soda; pour at once onto cookie sheet. With 2 forks, lift and pull peanut mixture into rectangle about 14x12 inches; cool. Snap candy into pieces.

OLD-FASHIONED PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Line a work surface with heatproof pads or pot holders. Generously grease 2 (13 x 9 x 2-inch) rimmed baking sheets. Place the prepared sheets on the protected work surface.
• In a large saucepan with a candy thermometer attached, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and water.
• Cook the sugar mixture over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar dissolves. Bring the sugar mixture to a boil. Carefully add the butter, stirring until melted. Begin to stir frequently when syrup reaches the thread stage, about 230 F.
• When the temperature reaches the soft-crack stage (280 F), add the peanuts. Stir constantly until hard-crack stage (300 F), is reached.
• Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Mix well to combine.
• Immediately pour the mixture evenly into the prepared baking pans.
• As the peanut brittle cools, stretch it thinner by lifting and pulling at the edges with forks. Loosen the brittle from the pans after about 7 to 8 minutes, flipping the brittle over while the mixture is still semi-solid and flexible (the mixture should be removed from the pans as quickly as possible to avoid sticking).
• Break the hardened candy into pieces as desired. Store in an airtight container.

QUICK AND EASY PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper.
• Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir sugar and salt with melted butter to dissolve completely. Remove saucepan from heat, add peanuts, and stir to coat completely; immediately pour onto prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
• Refrigerate until brittle, at least 30 minutes. Separate from parchment and break into pieces.

PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Line a quarter sheet pan with a Silpat (parchment will not work here).
• Make a dry caramel: Heat the sugar in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat. As soon as the sugar starts to melt, use a heatproof spatula to move it constantly around the pan-you want it all to melt and caramelize evenly. Cook and stir, cook and stir, until the caramel is a deep, dark amber, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Once the caramel has reached the target color, remove the pan from the heat and, with the heatproof spatula, stir in the nuts. Make sure the nuts are coated in caramel, then dump the contents of the pan out onto the prepared sheet pan. Spread out as thin and evenly as possible. The caramel will set into a hard-to-move-around brittle mass in less than a minute, so work quickly. Let the brittle cool completely.
• In a zip-top bag break the brittle up into pieces as small as possible with a meat pounder or a heavy rolling pin-we grind our brittle down in the food processor to the size of short-grain rice (you don't want anyone to chip a tooth on it!). Eat or cook with it at will. Store your brittle in an airtight container, and try to use it up within a month.
• hazelnut brittle
• Follow the recipe for peanut brittle, substituting hazelnuts for the peanuts.
• [makes about 250 g (1 3/4 cups)]
• cashew brittle
• Follow the recipe for peanut brittle, substituting 3/4 cup cashews for the peanuts and increasing the sugar to 1 1/2 cups.
• [makes about 375 g (2 1/4 cups)]
• pumpkin seed brittle
• This, obviously, is made from a seed, not a nut, but it works just the same. We use pepitas, or hulled pumpkin seeds. We've tried making them from raw shelled seeds scooped straight from a pumpkin, but to no avail.
• Follow the recipe for peanut brittle, substituting pumpkin seeds for the peanuts. When adding the seeds to the hot caramel, take care, they will "pop" a bit!
• [makes about 250 g (1 3/4 cups)]
• Elsewhere in this book
• Peanut brittle is used in Peanut Butter Crunch (page 185).

QUICK PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Line a baking tray with baking parchment. Melt the sugar in a medium frying pan over a medium heat for 4-5 mins until caramelised - it should be a dark amber colour. Don't stir, as this causes the sugar to crystallise - instead, tilt the pan slowly so the sugar melts evenly.
• Add the peanuts, stir with a wooden spoon, then quickly and carefully tip onto the prepared tray. Immediately sprinkle over the sea salt flakes and leave to cool until set. Will keep for several weeks in an airtight container.

HONEY PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Combine the honey and the water.
• Boil until it reaches the hard crack stage.
• Add the rest of the ingredients.
• Pour into a greased cookie sheet.
• Spread very thinly.
• Let it harden.
• Break into pieces.
• Enjoy!

PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Butter 2 cookie sheets, 15 1/2 x 12 inches; keep warm.
• Mix baking soda, 1 tsp water and the vanilla; set aside.
• mix sugar, 1 cup water and the corn syrup in a 3 quart saucepan.
• Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, to 240 degrees F on candy thermometer.
• Stir in margarine and peanuts.
• Cook, stirring constantly to 300 degrees F.
• Watch carefully so it doesn't burn.
• Remove from heat immediately; stir in baking soda mixture.
• Pour half of the candy mixture on each cookie sheet and spread quickly until it is about 1/4 inch thick.
• Cool and break into pieces.