Let's Make Some Peanut Brittle

Hey you guys let's make some peanut brittle today! Who's with me?

When I was reading up about brittle I found out that Peanut Brittle is the most popular brittle recipe in the United States. How about that. So I thought well shoot.... let me get one of my brittle recipes out and share it. I'm also going to share a few little quick facts that I found interesting.

Everybody knows what Brittle is!

Brittle is a type of confection consisting of flat broken pieces of hard sugar candy embedded with nuts such as pecans, almonds, or peanuts. And I had no idea about this but brittle is known all around the world. I'm listing what it's called in other countries below.

It's know all around the world / variations such as:

1. pasteli in Greece 
2. croquant in France
3. gozinaki in Georgia
4. gachak in Punjab (India) 
5. chikki in India
6. kotkoti in Bangladesh

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted peanuts)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup shelled peanuts - raw (roasted may be used, see Notes, below).
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (optional, I put the note about baking soda at the bottom).

Procedure

1. Grease a 9" x 12" cookie sheet. Set aside until needed.
2. Over medium heat, in a heavy 2-qt saucepan, bring the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water to a boil.
3. Attach a candy thermometer to the sauce pan with the tip in the mixture.
4. Continue heating,stiring occasionally, until the mixture reaches 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).
5. Add raw peanuts to the mixture. (Roasted peanuts are not recommended. If used, these must be added at a later stage of cooking to prevent burning).
6. Continue heating and stiring gently until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
7. If you are using roasted peanuts (not recommended), stir these into the mixture now.
8. Remove from heat.
9. Add butter and (optional)vanilla extract. Stir in quickly.
10. Add baking soda and stir very quickly. The volume of the mixture will double as bubbles form throughout. Be sure the soda is evenly mixed in and does not collect in one spot.
11. Pour mixture onto cookie sheet.
12. Using a fork or wooden spoon, spread the mixture evenly across the entire surface of the 9" x 12" cookie sheet.
13. Allow to cool to room temperature.
14. Break peanut brittle into bite size pieces.

• Baking soda adds an "easier bite" to the peanut brittle, causing it to break when less force is applied. It also causes the sugar base around the peanuts to be opaque. It does this by "foaming up" and introducing small bubbles in the sugar syrup. If you desire a clearer almost transparent sugar base around the peanuts and a "harder bite", reduce or omit the baking soda.

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We Celebrate the Holidays

National Peanut Brittle Day / Celebrated annually in the United States / on January 26

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Photo above Creative Commons Attribution / Wikipedia /

Peanut Brittle Day

Mummy's Microwave Peanut Brittle
Originally uploaded by GirlieErin

January 26th is National Peanut Brittle Day. I think peanut brittle is not only the choice for Peanut Brittle Day but it's popular for Halloween parties and Thanksgiving get-together's too. I know my Mother always made it the week of Thanksgiving every single year and shared it with any family or friends that came to visit. 

For this post I've picked a recipe for traditional Peanut Brittle by the Nut Factory. Peanut Brittle goes way way back and will forever be given as homemade food gifts.

Follow link for microwave peanut brittle.

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups raw Spanish peanuts
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 2 tsp. baking soda

Heat and stir sugar, syrup and water in a heavy 3-quart saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Add salt. Cook over medium heat to soft ball stage (234 degrees). Add peanuts at 250 degrees. Cook to hard crack stage (290 degrees), stirring often. Remove from heat.

Quickly, stir in butter and soda. Beat to a froth for a few seconds. Pour at once onto 2 well-buttered 15-1/2x10-1/2x1-inch pans, spreading with spatula. If desired, cool slightly and pull with forks to stretch thin. Break up when cold.

Yield: About 1-1/2 pounds of peanut brittle.
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