Multi Nut Brittle Food

MIXED NUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• In a large heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup and water. Cover and bring to a boil over medium heat. Uncover and cook until a candy thermometer reads 290° (soft-crack stage)., Meanwhile, grease a 15x10x1-in. baking pan with 2 teaspoons butter; set aside. Place nuts in two ungreased 15x10x1-in. baking pans; bake at 325° for 10-15 minutes or until warm. (Keep warm until ready to use.), Remove sugar mixture from the heat; carefully stir in the nuts, vanilla, salt and remaining butter. Quickly spread into prepared pan. Cool completely; break into pieces.

NUT AND SEED BRITTLE

Steps:

• Toast the seeds and almonds in a 350 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes, shaking the pan once during the process.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment.
• Heat the sugar, corn syrup, butter and water in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until the sugar has melted. Stop stirring and allow the sugar to cook until it reaches 300 degrees F on a candy thermometer -- swirl the pan occasionally to ensure it cooks evenly, about 10 minutes.
• Carefully, but moving quickly, stir in the toasted seeds and nuts until everything is coated. Pour onto the prepared baking sheet, trying to disperse it as evenly as possible and using the back of a spoon as needed. Sprinkle over the sea salt and allow to cool completely, 1 1/2 hours.
• Break the brittle into shards of desired size and store in an airtight container or pack into clear bags and tie with ribbon.

NUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Brush a 9-by-13-inch rimmed baking sheet with butter. Combine sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 3/4 cup water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Wash down sides of pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to prevent any crystals from forming. Cook, swirling pan occasionally, until mixture reaches the soft-ball stage on a candy thermometer (238 degrees).
• Stir in the nuts; continue to cook, stirring often so the nuts do not burn, until the mixture is golden amber in color. Remove from heat.
• Carefully stir in vanilla and baking soda. The mixture will foam up in the pan. Pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet, and quickly spread with an oiled metal spatula. Set aside until completely cool. Break into pieces to serve. Brittle can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 month.

EASY NUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Spray a rimmed baking sheet and a wide metal spatula with cooking spray; set aside.
• In a 2-quart glass measuring cup, combine sugar, corn syrup, and salt, stirring until sugar is moistened. Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Stir in butter and nuts; return to microwave for about 5 minutes, until the sugar mixture is thick, bubbly, and very pale brown in color. Mixture is very hot; use handle when holding and pouring.
• Remove from microwave, stir in vanilla and baking soda (mixture may foam up). Immediately pour onto prepared baking sheet, spreading mixture as thinly as possible with the prepared spatula. Let stand 20 minutes until hardened, then lift off sheet, and break brittle into bite-size pieces.

MULTI-NUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Generously butter a cookie sheet.
• In a large saucepan over high heat, cook sugar, water, and corn syrup until mixture reaches 280 degrees on a candy thermometer.
• Slowly add nuts and cook, stirring, until temperature reaches 300 degrees; turn off heat.
• Carefully stir in butter and vanilla until blended; add baking soda and stir vigorously but cautiously; pour mixture onto prepared cookie sheet and spread as thinly as possible with a wooden spoon.
• Cool completely; Break cooled candy into pieces; store in airtight container.

MIXED NUT PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Butter two 15x10 cookie sheets.
• Cook sugar,syrup,water,butter and salt in a heavy saucepan oven medium heat, stirring often, watching to see that it does not burn.
• Cook to 275 degrees until syrup turns a clear, golden brown. Remove from heat just when it turns that rich golden color, but does not begin to burn.
• Remove from heat and immediately add mixed nuts and baking soda.
• Pour onto 1 large cookie sheets, spread with forks to pull candy to cover pan or if you're lazy (like me) turn the pan to allow the gooey mess to travel across the pan.
• Allow to cool and crack. If you're in a hurry ( like me) you can put the cookie sheet in the frig for a few minutes.
• Immediately join Weight Watchers. LOL.

NUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Put the nuts, sugar, butter, corn syrup, and honey in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until it becomes a nice walnut color and thickens, about 10 to 12 minutes. Quickly pour onto a silpat or foil lined baking sheet and spread the brittle to an even thickness of about 1/3-inch with the back of the spoon.
• Cool for 3 or 4 minutes then score the brittle with a sharp knife into about 24 (2-inch) squares. Once the brittle has cooled completely, snap along scored marks.

HOMEMADE NUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Prepare an ice-water bath, and set aside. Place almonds on parchment paper; spread out nuts to form a rectangle (9 by 12 inches). Follow recipe for basic caramel, adding salt to sugar. Remove caramel from heat, and set pan in ice-water bath to stop the cooking. Remove pan; let cool until slightly thick (the consistency of honey). Pour over nuts to cover. Let cool until hardened. Peel off parchment; break brittle into pieces.

"NUTCRACKER" MIXED-NUT BRITTLE IN THE MICROWAVE

Steps:

• Butter a 10x15-inch baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
• Spray a heatproof spoon with cooking spray. Stir sugar and corn syrup together in a 2-quart microwave-safe bowl using the greased spoon. Microwave on high until very bubbly, 2 1/2 to 4 minutes.
• Quickly stir in nuts and butter. Continue microwaving until bubbles begin to take on a light caramel color, another 2 1/2 to 4 minutes. Watch carefully to make sure the nuts don't burn. Add vanilla extract and baking soda, stirring quickly until bubbly and combined.
• Immediately pour mixture onto the prepared sheet pan in a thin layer. Sprinkle with sea salt. Allow to cool and set before breaking into pieces, 30 to 40 minutes.

TROPICAL BRITTLE

Steps:

• Coat a large non stick baking sheet with nonstick spray.
• Combine sugar and corn syrup into a heavy bottom 3 quart saucepan and mix.
• Cook on medium-high heat and stir occasionally, until temp reaches 275 degrees.
• Stir in nuts and continue cooking, stir occasionally, until temp reaches 305 degrees.
• Set aside.
• Quickly stir in baking soda,vanilla and coconut.
• Spread mixture evenly onto baking sheet with a greased offset wooden spoon.
• After brittle has completely cooled.
• Loosen and break into medium large pieces.
• Store in airtight container for 2 week.

MIXED NUT-CORNFLAKE BRITTLE

Steps:

• Line a 15x10x1-in. baking pan with foil and heavily grease the foil; set aside. In a large heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup and butter. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved and mixture begins to a boil. Remove from the heat. Stir in cornflakes and nuts. , Spread into prepared pan. Bake at 300° for 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Break into pieces. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

HOT AND SWEET NUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F Place almonds in 15 1/2 x 10 1/2-inch jelly-roll pan. Bake 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown, shaking pan occasionally. Cool almonds in pan on wire rack.
• While almonds cool, in heavy 3-quart saucepan, heat vinegar and 2 cups sugar to boiling over medium heat. Continue cooking over medium heat until mixture turns dark amber in color, 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. (If using a thermometer, temperature should read about 360°F.)
• Meanwhile, in small bowl, mix salt, cumin, coriander, ground red pepper, and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Lightly grease large cookie sheet.
• Remove saucepan from heat. Stir spice mixture into hot sugar syrup. Add almonds, and stir until evenly coated. Immediately pour mixture onto cookie sheet. With 2 forks, spread almond mixture to form a single layer.
• Cool brittle completely on cookie sheet on wire rack. With hands, break brittle into small pieces. Store in tightly covered jar or tin for up to a month.

BASIC BRITTLE

Steps:

• Coat a 12-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet withcooking spray. Bring sugar and corn syrup to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring and brushing down sides with a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar crystals from forming, until sugar dissolves. Cook,swirling occasionally, until mixture just starts to turn golden around edge.
• Stir in mix-ins. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is pale amber, about 8 minutes. Pour onto baking sheet without spreading. Let cool. 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).