Peanut Brittle

LonghornGirlie

500+ Posts
I just made a little bit of heaven and wanted to share it with you guys.

First, the story (you can skip down to the recipe if you aren't interested). I don't cook a lot, but I like to bake and make sweets. I especially like to make things that not everybody makes. Robert's family is full of cooks. He is a great cook, himself. It seems that everybody has a "thing" that they make -- his sister does quiche, his mother made incredible pies, he has a cousin who makes these unbelievable tea cakes. An uncle of his, who has been very ill for a very long time, used to make this peanut brittle that Robert's Dad would literally hide so that the rest of us wouldn't eat it all. It was portioned out like alms to the poor around the holidays.

Since David won't be making peanut brittle anymore, its been on my mind to continue this family legacy even if he isn't in any shape to teach me how to do it. I was emboldened when I watched a friend make some for her Christmas party this year, so I decided to give it a go myself. I actually just pulled a recipe off of the net and gave it a try. The consistency turned out ok, but it was pretty flavorless. I added some stuff from other recipes that sounded good, tried again, and the batch that I just finished is seriously perfect.

It isn't nearly as hard as one might think and you don't have to worry about ruining any pans or utensils with my recipe. I'll add a lot of explanation on some points and don't laugh at my descriptions. It works and you don't need a damn candy thermometer.

Here goes:

Ingredients:
1 cup raw Spanish peanuts (usually in the produce section)
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup (Karo)
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt (I used Kosher, but I doubt it matters)
2 TBL butter
1 tsp baking soda

Part of the key to this is to have everything ready to go. Have the vanilla, salt, butter and especially baking soda ready because it all goes fast at the end. Put out a cookie sheet with aluminum foil on it (no need to butter or cooking spray it).

In a large NONSTICK skillet, mix the sugar, syrup and water together. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring regulary. It will boil a good bit. Don't be alarmed. Heat until mixture has hard-ball consistency. (That's the crap that annoys me in recipes... WTF is hard-ball consistency? And, no, I'm not going to buy a candy thermometer). Hard-ball consistency is not that hard to see. Every once in a while, lift the spoon that you are stirring with out of the mixture. Watch the stuff drip down. At first it will be liquid. When it gets to hard-ball consistency, it will drop more slowly and it will "hair" off the spoon, meaning the bit that stays on the spoon will pull back slowly and curl a bit. You'll see it. It will kind of look like a spider web.

At this point, add the raw peanuts. My recipe says that they pop a little, but I haven't seen that. You can stir some, but pretty much leave it be. The mixture will still be bubbling a lot and will continue to thicken. When it starts to trun a light clear-brown (kind of hard to see because the peanuts are brown), but basically when the mixture itself seems to have changed from clear to brown-ish, remove from the heat.

Here's where it gets exciting. Add the salt, butter and vanilla and stir. The butter will melt pretty quickly and the whole thing will foam a little. Then add the baking soda and stir a lot. It will foam even more and lighten in color. This stirring thing is just to mix -- less than a minute. Pour across the foiled cookie sheet. Use the spoon to pull a bit if parts are too thick, but this will be kind of hard to do. It will shrink and harden pretty quick, so mostly just let it be.

Leave it to harden.

The spoon and the skillet should be cleaned immediately with hot water. If you use a non-stick skillet, the stuff will come off easily. Just get most of the mixture off of the spoon with a scraper and then soak in hot water if there is anything left. It'll come off.

Enjoy! I can't wait to give some of this to Robert's Dad.
 
That sounds great. Growing up my grandmother would always have a batch made for us. Haven't had any in a long time and sure miss it.
 

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