Thursday: Perfect Peanut Brittle

I confess, I used the recipe with cashews and
this is actually cashew brittle....

I am an avid candy maker, especially in the winter, when I'm cooped up at home, just staring at bags of sugar and corn syrup bottles, wondering what I can make. Through some trial and error, I have found a fail-proof (and I do mean fail proof!) method for making a perfect peanut brittle. It doesn't take a lot of time or a lot of fancy ingredients. I can guarantee you will have a hard time enjoying any other brittle once you've made this.

Ingredients
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups light corn syrup

1 1/2 cups water
1 pound Spanish peanuts (or cashews....mmmm.... cashew brittle....)
1 Tb baking soda

Spanish peanuts

Not too extensive of a list, right? And the directions are about as simple.

Step 1
Take a cookie sheet with sides and grease lightly with vegetable oil

Step 2
In a large pot, combine the sugar, water, and corn syrup over medium to medium-high heat. Boil that sucker. If it is boiling too high (as in it seems like it is going to overflow the pan), turn the heat down. You want a constant boil, but nothing crazy. Stir every few minutes and wash the sides of the pan down with a pastry brush soaked in water

Step 3
Keep on stirring and boiling. Every 5-7 minutes, take a spoonful of your candy mix and pour it into icy cold water. If the mixture is soft and pliable, keep cooking.

Step 4
Once the mixture, upon hitting cold water, becomes hard and brittle (get it, brittle? I'm hilarious) and is the texture you want your peanut brittle to be, remove your pot from the heat and add the peanuts and baking soda. This stage of brittle candy is called the crack stage and should look like this -> when you pull it out of the water. (thanks to PinkPolkaDotCreations.com for a nice picture capturing what it looks like). Mix vigorously and quickly, QUICKLY spoon onto your greased cookie sheet, using a wooden spoon to spread the mixture evenly.

Step 5
Allow to cool. Then, once totally hard, smash that baby up with a mallet, knife, your hands, or whatever you want, and enjoy yourself some of the best brittle you'll ever have.