Peanut Brittle

Name: Peanut Brittle
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 30 pieces.
Ingredients: 3/4 cup peanuts; 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, combine boil until amber; 3/4 cup water

Submitted by Dancer

"I decided to try this recipe and see how it compares to others. I can't eat too much peanut brittle at one time, so I decided to halve the recipe."

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Ready In:: 30mins
Ingredients:: 5
Yields:: 30 pieces.

ingredients

³⁄₄ cup peanuts
¹⁄₄ teaspoon cinnamon
¹⁄₄ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 ¹⁄₂ cups granulated sugar, combine boil until amber
³⁄₄ cup water

directions

Lightly toast peanuts in a small pan to bring out their flavor.
Mix the peanuts with cinnamon and cayenne pepper by tossing a couple times in the medium bowl.
A bit of spiciness in sweets helps to heighten the flavors and punch of the other spices (like the cinnamon in this case).
This is a "trick" well known to chocolatiers and made famous by the movie Chocolat.
Over on the stove, combine the water and sugar in a saucepan.
I used a nonstick saucepan, but if you're using a traditional pan, then you'll want to rub the interior surface of the pan down with vegetable oil.
Over medium-high heat, dissolve the sugar into the water and brought it to a boil.
While the syrup was coming to a boil, prepare cookie sheet, non-stick or use parchment paper.
When the sugar turns a light amber color (if you're using a candy thermometer, look for 350 degrees, you're ready to introduce the peanuts.
Working quickly, use a wooden spoon to mix in the peanuts and spices.
It's important to work fast (and sure) from this point on because the syrup is rapidly cooling.
While you are stirring, the syrup will foam up, but the high sides of your saucepan will save you from a mess.
After the peanuts have been stirred in, pour the syrup parchment paper.
Syrup will flow out from the peanuts, so just use a wooden spoon to fold the excess sugar back onto the peanuts.
As it thickens it won't flow anymore.
At the same time, use the back of wooden spoon to press the peanuts down flat so you only have a single layer.
After the brittle cooled (about thirty minutes), wrap it in plastic wrap and broke it into 1 1/2 to 2 inch pieces with hands.
Placed them in a air tight container.

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Reviews

This was quite good, and looked very authentic. I used 1 cup of peanuts as I like more. The cayenne pepper was a little too strong though- next time I will make it wit only 1/8 tsp. Also, the sugar took a long time to change colour! But it did eventually and it looked great in gift bags.

Chickee