Peanut Brittle

If you're looking for a great hostess gift for all the holiday parties you're invited to this season look no further.  I'm really into food gifts and things like toffee, sweet snack mixes and bourbon balls fit the bill quite well as does this peanut brittle recipe.  Really anything you can stick in a jar is pretty and a change up from the standard bottle of wine in a re-gifted gift bag.

You do need a candy thermometer to execute this recipe, if you don't have one see bourbon balls above.  If you do have one this comes together pretty quickly...

Sugar, butter, water and corn syrup get cooked together, then you add peanuts and cook it further until it gets a little bit of color on it and reaches "hard crack" stage (the temperature where the final product will crack when it's cooled... like toffee). 

The only scary part comes right at the end when you add baking soda to the mixture.  It causes the whole pot to foam up so fiercely that you think it's going to overflow all over the stove.  Thankfully, it does not.  This creates little air pockets in the brittle which is why when the brittle cools it breaks really easily and doesn't kill your teeth when you bite into it.  Without the baking soda the consistency would be more like a lollipop which is harder to bite through.

After mixing in the baking soda, the entire things gets spread out onto a pan to cool.  Once cool, you can break it into pieces.

This turned out pretty well.  Its recipients commented that it wasn't as sweet as the peanut brittle they've had previously which was a good thing.  It means that you can eat more of it before you get sick of it.

Peanut Brittle
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens
Makes enough to fill 2 quart size jars with a few leftover pieces

Ingredients

2 cups Sugar

1 cup Light Corn Syrup

1/2 cup Water

1/4 cup Butter

2 1/2 cups Unsalted Peanuts

1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda 

Instructions

Line 2 baking sheets with silpats or spray generously with non-stick spray.

In a large saucepan combine sugar, corn syrup, water, and butter. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until mixture boils. Clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Reduce heat to medium-low; continue boiling, stirring occasionally, until the thermometer registers 275 degrees (about 30 minutes). Stir in nuts; continue cooking over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until thermometer registers 295 degrees, (15 to 20 minutes more).

Remove pan from heat; remove thermometer. Quickly sprinkle baking soda over mixture, stirring constantly (it will foam and bubble). Immediately pour onto prepared baking sheets and use an offset spatula sprayed with cooking spray to smooth it out over the majority of the pans.  

Cool completely and break into pieces. Store tightly covered up to 1 month. 

Enjoy!

Julie