Peanut Brittle Bars 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.

PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Measure the vanilla into a small bowl and set aside. Combine the baking soda and salt in another small bowl and set aside. Butter 1 cookie sheet with sides or jelly roll pan liberally with 1/2 stick of the butter. Set aside.
• Combine the sugar, corn syrup and 1/2 cup water in a large saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, attach a candy thermometer and cook over medium-high heat until the syrup spins a thread when poured from a spoon or reaches 240 degrees F on the thermometer. Stir in the peanuts and continue cooking and stirring until the candy becomes golden brown or reaches 300 degrees F.
• Remove from the heat immediately and quickly add the remaining 1 stick butter and the vanilla, baking soda and salt. Stir only until the butter melts, and then quickly pour the brittle onto the cookie sheet, spreading the mixture thinly. When the brittle has completely cooled, break the candy into pieces and store in a tightly covered container.

PEANUT BRITTLE BARS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 15x10x1-inch pan with shortening. In large bowl, mix all base ingredients except butter. With pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until crumbly. Press mixture evenly in bottom of pan. Bake 8 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.
• Remove partially baked base from oven. Sprinkle peanuts and chocolate chips over warm base. In small bowl, mix caramel topping and 3 tablespoons flour until well blended. Drizzle evenly over chocolate chips and peanuts.
• Return to oven; bake 12 to 18 minutes longer or until topping is set and golden brown. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Cut into bars.

THE BEST PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and grease with nonstick cooking spray.
• Stir together the sugar, corn syrup and 1/2 cup water in a medium saucepan fitted with a candy/deep-fry thermometer. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, then continue to boil until it's golden brown and it reaches 340 degrees F, about 15 minutes.
• Working quickly, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter and baking soda until smooth (it will foam and bubble up). Stir in the peanuts until evenly distributed amongst the sugar mixture.
• Pour onto the prepared baking sheet and quickly smooth with a rubber spatula into a thin and even layer. Let harden uncovered at room temperature until cooled completely. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

PEANUT BRITTLE BARS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 15X10X1 inch baking pan; set aside.
• For crust: In medium bowl, combine 2 cups flour and brown sugar. Using pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press mixture into bottom of prepared pan. Bake about 12 minutes or until golden.
• Sprinkle peanuts and milk chocolate chips over crust. In small bowl, stir together caramel topping and 3 tablespoons flour. Drizzle over top.
• Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until caramel mixture is bubbly. Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.

PEANUT BRITTLE COOKIE BARS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C ). Grease a 15x9 inch pan.
• In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar. Mix in the egg and vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Then stir in 1 cup of the peanuts.
• Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared baking pan. Sprinkle the remaining peanuts over the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until edges pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool and cut into bars.

MICROWAVE PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Microwave sugar and corn syrup in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 5 min., stirring after 3 min. Stir in peanuts. Microwave an additional 3 to 5 min. or until golden brown.
• Add butter and vanilla; stir until butter is completely melted. Microwave 1 min. Stir in baking soda. (Mixture will foam.)
• Spread mixture onto baking sheet. Cool completely. Break into pieces.

PEANUT BRITTLE BARS

Steps:

• Mix first 3 ingredients until creamy.
• Mix in next 2 ingredients.
• (Mixture will form clumps).
• Stir in peanuts and chocolate chips.
• Press dough onto an ungreased 15x10x1-inch jelly-roll pan.
• Bake for 15 to 25 minutes at 375°F or until edges are golden brown.
• -=OR=-.
• Press dough into nonstick baking pan.
• Bake for 23 to 28 minutes at 350°F, or until edges are golden brown.
• Cool completely.
• Stir together peanut butter and powdered sugar.
• Add hot water until it is the right consistency for drizzling, and drizzle it over the cooled bars.
• Cut into bars or break into irregular pieces before serving.

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).