Gastronomy612′s Weblog

I got into making candy.  Really, I. Got. In. To. Making. CANDY.  I’m not one much for peanut brittle, or any nutty candy (Nut Rolls being an exception – weird) but figure that I am not like a lot of people and since this candy was for other people, I tried my best to please them.  Let’s face it, peanut brittle, while charming during the winter doesn’t fit in with the other six months of the year.  Until now.

Never having a candy making extraordinaire  in my family, I didn’t have reliable recipe and like most things, utilized the Internet to find a recipe which conformed to ingredients I already had on hand.  That’s when I came across this recipe.  It is really straight forward and full proof so long as you keep your watchful eye on the thermometer (which you already learned when we made caramel).

The peanuts I bought were roasted dry peanuts from the big box grocery store from the bulk section.  You get a lot more bang for your buck when buying in bulk rather than buying jars and jars of Planters.

Maybe at this point you’re wondering what’s so great about this peanut brittle that makes it different from your Christmas kind and thus appropriate at other times of the year.  The method has been the same, the ingredients have been the same.  So What gives?

Stop.  Go through your spice rack and scour it for some spicy goodness.  I don’t have a spice rack so I had to go through the spice cupboard and took out some cayenne and red pepper flakes.  I  merely eye balled the amount I put in (I also thought this was a good idea since I already drank four beers at the time) and hoped for the best.  If  had to guess though, I’d say I put in a teaspoon of red pepper flakes and maybe a tablespoon of cayenne.

You can really see how the cayenne changes the color of the brittle.

You can see the color more here as the candy is nearly done.  It just needs to cool and harden.  I poured all of the contents of the pot on to two Silpat sheets.  If you don’t have Silpats, pour onto greased cookie sheets.  Using my hands, I stretched the candy and distribute the peanuts, but not so far as to have any peanut-free pieces.  When it fully cooled I broke it into individual pieces.

It was hard to decipher how much cayenne and red pepper flakes to add.  I like spicy things spicy and this did not fulfill that for me.  However, the spices were also not distributed evenly, so I may have had some weak pieces.  This merely means that I will have to try again!  More on that later…