Peanut Brittle

I'm planning for a retreat with friends and am thinking about what to cook to share. It occurred to me that peanut brittle might be a nice choice - easy to pick up and munch, but keeps well so I could make it today.

So, I went hunting for a recipe I like. I remembered having made it before but I hadn't posted it in this section of the website. Fortunately, I found it on my regular blog. So, I'm correcting the oversight and getting the recipe here in the recipe section. I even took photos when I made it before.

Here's the recipe I used. I don't recall where I got it.

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.

I saw Alton Brown make brittle and he 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. He smashed on the top pan to make sure there was only one layer of peanuts. That's a good trick to remember.