A Brittle Kind of Day

Tonight was Creative Sisterhood. It was the first night in ages that all six of us have been here. I didn't really have a topic tonight. There were a lot of things on my mind, but I just didn't feel much like sharing. My life is going in so many different directions these days that it's a struggle for me to focus enough to verbalize even a fraction of what's going on in my head and heart.

I made peanut brittle tonight. It's odd how that came to be...

I went to Roy's today for lunch and while I was there a gentleman came in and gave Anne some cashew brittle. She generously shared some with me. I had thought last night about making peanut brittle for tonight so that seemed to be a sign for me.

Anne was talking about what a pain it is to make, and I told her it didn't seem bad to me. Bear in mind that last Christmas was the first time I'd ever made any, so it's not like I'm too experienced. After a quick lunch I went to buy some raw peanuts - the one thing I didn't have in the house - so I'd be prepared to cook at 5.

As if this isn't enough peanut brittle talk for one day, I have the food network on right now and Alton Brown is talking about - guess what? - making brittle. He makes it sound somewhat complex. Maybe I've just been having beginner's luck. And, I have a candy thermometer and I'm not afraid to use it. I know it's kind of cheating, but I'm not my Mama, and when I make candy without a thermometer it can just be an ugly experience. No one needs that.

Alton says there are times you're supposed to stir and not supposed to stir, but I can't tell you that. I guess I've been lucky because I haven't had any problems, even without this knowledge.

Here's the recipe I used. I don't recall where I got it but probably from allrecipes.com as that's one of my favorite spots online for recipes.

Peanut Brittle
2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup water
2 cups raw 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 cookie sheets, spreading with spatula. Break up when cold.

When you add the butter and soda it gets all frothy for a few seconds. For reasons I don't fully understand, I particularly like this part. Maybe it's the cooking as chemistry part of it all.

Then you just pour it out to cool.

When it's cool just twist the pan and it cracks. Alton Brown held another pan over it and shook them to break. He also used a cookie sheet the same size and "stacked" them when he first poured it out to make sure there was only one layer of peanuts. That's a good trick to remember.

Caramel Corn

I made some caramel corn tonight. I'm just guessing it's not something that anyone with any medical training has ever suggested someone consume. But, given the time of year, caramel corn just seemed like the perfect thing to munch on tonight.

Of course, caramel corn isn't something I keep lying around the house. So, I whipped up my own.

I don't recall ever having made caramel corn before - don't ever remember thinking it would be something I wanted to eat before. But, it was easy enough to do.

I eat a lot of popcorn - not the microwave kind, but the normal kind. So, I popped a bowl of corn and meanwhile made some caramel sauce. I just poured mine over and stirred the corn a bit. I didn't coat it too thoroughly, but of course you can make as much as you'd like on yours.

Caramel Sauce

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white syrup

Mix and cook on top of stove. Let boil for one minute. It will look just like melted caramels. You just pour it over the popped corn and mix it up. If you're doing very much corn, it would be beneficial to do it in layers, instead of only pouring the sauce on top of a large pile of corn and expecting to be able to mix it well. I didn't worry too much about mixing mine completely.

All in all, it was a fine experiment. I have a bit of a sugar headache - how could that be with a concoction that is two-thirds syrup and sugar with the remaining third being butter?

Obviously, you can make this in any quantity you want - just use equal parts of the three ingredients. I used 1/2 cup since that's a stick of butter. Plus, I wanted to save some and see how it works later. I'm guessing just warming it up again will make it pourable the second time. We'll see.

Needless to say, I didn't consume the entire recipe. I like sugar, but that's over the top. 

Caramel corn seemed the perfect thing to have on a fall day. I guess people don't make popcorn balls for Halloween treats anymore. Pity.