Recipe: Barb's Peanut Brittle

Barb's Peanut Brittle
rec.food.cooking/Peter Rowley

This is the _best_ Peanut Brittle I have ever tasted. It is kind of a trick to make (use LOTS of butter on your fingers when pulling it), but worth the trouble.

I have converted many diehard "Peanut Brittle haters" with it.

3 cups sugar
1 cup hot water
1 1/2 cups light corn syrup
2 3/4 cups raw Spanish peanuts (make sure these are raw)
1 oz butter (1x1-inch cube)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1 tsp vanilla (use real vanilla)

This recipe takes quite a lot of counter space. Start by taking four cookie sheets and buttering them. Around each cookie sheet, spread aluminum foil (need 4 square feet+ around each cookie sheet).

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, add the sugar, water, and corn syrup. Make sure not to get any on the sides of the pan. Heat on low until everything becomes liquid, then turn heat up to medium/med high. Insert candy thermometer, and boil mixture until it reaches 240 degrees F. Slowly, add the peanuts. The mixture should NOT stop boiling. Continue heating until the mixture reaches 310 degrees F.

Remove the pan from the stove. Toss in the cube of butter. Mix the soda, salt, and vanilla, and pour them into the mixture. Mix it all up using a wooden spoon.

Pour the mixture onto the 4 buttered cookie sheets. Get you fingers REAL buttery. As the peanut brittle cools along the edges, pull it out into thin strings. It usually takes two people to keep up with it.

As soon as everything has cooled down, store the Peanut brittle in a sealed container. It is very hydrophilic and will stick together if you let it sit out.