Extra Nutty Peanut Brittle Recipes

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.

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.

EXTRA-NUTTY PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Generously grease large cookie sheet and wooden spoon with butter.
• In 2-quart nonstick saucepan, heat corn syrup, sugar and water to boiling, stirring frequently. Boil 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until mixture reaches 230°F to 234°F on candy thermometer and forms a long thread when spoon is lifted and held above pan. Stir in peanuts. Cook 10 to 15 minutes longer, stirring frequently, until peanuts turn golden brown and mixture reaches 300°F.
• Meanwhile, in small bowl, stir vanilla and baking soda until soda is dissolved. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in vanilla mixture and butter. Quickly spread on cookie sheet, smoothing top with back of buttered spoon to make a single layer of peanuts. Cool about 20 minutes; break into 1-inch pieces. Store in airtight container up to 3 weeks.

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

Steps:

• Heat oven to 200°F. Butter 2 cookie sheets, 15 1/2x12 inches, and keep warm in oven. Mix baking soda, 1 teaspoon water and the vanilla; reserve.
• Mix sugar, 1 cup water and the corn syrup in 3-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, to 240°F on candy thermometer or until small amount of syrup dropped into very cold water forms a soft ball that flattens when removed from water.
• Stir in butter and peanuts. Cook, stirring constantly, to 300°F or until small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into hard, brittle threads. (Watch carefully so mixture does not burn.) Immediately remove from heat. Quickly stir in baking soda mixture until light and foamy.
• Pour half the candy mixture onto each cookie sheet; quickly spread about 1/4 inch thick. Cool completely, at least 1 hour. Break into pieces. Store in covered 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.

NUTTY BRITTLE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.
• Line a jelly roll pan with aluminum foil. Spray foil with cooking spray and place pan in warm oven. Spray a heavy small saucepan with cooking spray. Add caramels and stir over low heat until melted. Stir in toffee peanuts and continue stirring for a couple minutes. Spray a dull knife or metal off-set spatula with cooking spray. Remove pan from oven and then quickly spread caramel-peanut mixture over prepared pan. Cool completely; cover pan with plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Break into bite-size pieces. Store in refrigerator.

BUTTERY PEANUT BRITTLE

Steps:

• Combine sugar, syrup and water in 3 quart pan.
• Cook and stir until sugar dissolves.
• When syrup boils, blend in butter.
• Stir frequently after mixture reaches syrup stage (230°).
• Add nuts when temperature reaches soft crack (280°) and stir constantly until hard crack (305°).
• Remove from heat.
• Quickly stir in baking soda, mixing thoroughly.
• Pour onto 2 large, well butter cookie sheets.
• As candy cools, stretch out thin by lifting and pulling from edges, using 2 forks.
• Loose from pans as soon as possible and turn candy over.
• Break in pieces.
• I use table knife handle.

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.

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).