Peanut Brittle

Sweet and Crunchy Peanut Brittle

One of the easiest sweets to make is a nut brittle with only a few ingredients needed. This recipe uses peanuts, but any kind of nuts can be used.

Peanut Brittle

Ingredients:

1 quart sugar

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1 quart peanuts 

1/3 cup butter

Method:

1. In a heavy pan or pot add the sugar, corn syrup and a dash of water, stir well.

2. Slowly bring to a simmer and using a candy thermometer bring the temperature up to 300F.

3. Add the nuts and butter, stir well till they are evenly coated.

4. Have a flat sheet pan greased with oil and on a surface where the hot candy will not damage it.

5. Carefully pour out the hot mixture and using a heatproof spatula spread it out evenly.

6. Allow to cool completely, then break into smaller bite size pieces.

Note: Corn syrup does not have to be used in the recipe, but will help prevent the sugar mixture from crystallizing during the cooking process.

Cooking sugar to the right temperature 

There are many stages in cooking sugar depending on what recipe you are making; brittle being hard and crunchy needs to be cooked to 300 degrees, which is called the Hard Crack Stage.

Peanuts in the hot cooked sugar

When the liquid sugar reaches 300F it's ready and the nuts can be carefully added using a heat proof spatula. Caution -it's very hot.

Poured into a lightly greased sheet pan

After the brittle is poured and allowed to cool, it can be broken into any size or shape.


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