Buttery Peanut Brittle

This post is dangerous.

I’m telling you now, so consider yourself warned.

You might have forgotten how freaking amazing peanut brittle is, and even if you haven’t forgotten, you haven’t tasted this.  And I speak from unfortunate experience that you simply cannot eat one piece of this brittle in one sitting.  (Or one ‘standing’, which was the position I was in as I inhaled about 1/3 of the entire batch to myself.)

Honest moment: I technically screwed this recipe up and it so didn’t matter.
I totally forgot to add the baking soda and vanilla and salt (step 3).  I was distracted, realized my thermometer was reading a temperature higher than it should have been, and that I could sense that distinct “these peanuts are about to start to burn and ruin this entire baking experience” smell, and I panicked- I poured and spread the brittle pronto.  Then said to The Husband “oh no!” (or something to that effect).  The good news is that it still made a gobble-worthy dessert, and next time I’ll do it right and have an even airier candy (which is what the baking soda will do).  At any rate, this recipe is dangerous and insanely good.  Go nuts.

Adapted from Better Homes and Garden’s recipe…

2 cups sugar

1 cup light-colored corn syrup

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup butter (no substitutes!)

2 1/2 cups raw peanuts

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 pinch salt

1. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.  (Or have a large silicone baking mat at the ready.)
2. Butter sides of a heavy 3-quart saucepan.  Combine sugar, corn syrup, water, and butter in pan.  Cook and stir over medium-high heat until mixture comes to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and continue boiling at a moderate, steady rate, stirring occasionally, until the thermometer registers 275º (about 30 minutes).  Stir in warmed raw nuts*; continue cooking over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until thermometer registers 295º (15 to 20 minutes more).
3. Remove pan from heat and quickly sprinkle baking soda and vanilla over mixture, stirring constantly.  Immediately pour onto prepared baking sheets, then cover with another piece of parchment roll out with a rolling pin (OR use 2 forks to lift and pull candy as it cools).  Cool completely; break into pieces.  Store tightly covered up to 1 month.

Tips:

• *Warm roasted nuts first in a 250° oven.  Adding cold nuts to the hot syrup could cause it to seize and crystallize.  You could also just heat your nuts right in the measuring cup in the microwave if you don’t want to use the oven…
• If the nuts are salted, omit the salt in the recipe.
• If using roasted peanuts, add to sugar mixture when thermometer reaches 290º.  They are already cooked/roasted, so might burn sooner if you keep them in the hot sugar for longer.
• Other nuts are likelier to burn, which can make the candy so not what you want (especially soft-textured ones like pecans, cashews, and walnuts).  If you want to make brittle with any of these nuts, add them when the sugar syrup has almost finished cooking, at around 290°.
• Stretching the candy while it’s still hot and pliable makes a thinner brittle that’s easier to eat.  Ideally your baking pans will be preheated in the oven to about 200-275º.  I did not do this as I used my big huge silicone mat, but whatever.
• Freeze some for later… you could easily crumble it on top of vanilla ice cream, or onto a World’s Greatest Fudge Brownie.  Oh.  Yes.
• Enjoy!

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