Homemade peanut brittle is a crunchy old-fashioned hard candy brimming with roasted peanuts, butter, and sweet vanilla. Baking soda produces a fine foam, which gives the peanut brittle a perfectly delicate crunch.
This sweet, crunchy homemade peanut brittle will be your go-to Christmas candy! It’s an old-fashioned candy that everyone knows and loves, but this peanut brittle recipe is like no brittle I’ve had before.
The flavor is richer and more caramelized, the crunch is perfectly delicate. The smell is out of this world. It fills your house with notes of caramel, toffee, vanilla, butter.
Once you start eating the roasted peanut candy, with its sweet toffee-like coating and hint of salt, you’ll need to get it OUT of the house and quickly. Or accept that you’ll probably just eat the whole batch. And love every bite.
I’ll break down why this is the best peanut brittle recipe below, but in the meantime I want you to know it couldn’t be simpler. Go find some really good blanched peanuts and a reliable candy thermometer, and get to work making this old-fashioned peanut brittle!
a note on corn syrup:
Corn syrup has a bad rap these days, but it’s not exactly fair or accurate. When we talk about corn syrup for candy making or cooking, we’re not referring to the dreaded high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Karo corn syrup, for example, is just glucose that is made from cornstarch. It hasnt undergone more treatment to convert the glucose to unnaturally high levels of fructose.
All candy producers use some form of glucose. Whether the initial source of starch is corn, wheat, potatoes, it doesn’t really matter. The starch is hydrolyzed into small chains of glucose. And this glucose syrup (corn syrup is the easiest to find in the US), is critical in preventing crystallization in almost all candy.
homemade peanut brittle is easy:
Growing up, my mom always made old-fashioned candy over the holidays. Usually it was clear-as-glass anise candy that we always loved to tint red for Christmas. What really sticks with me, though, was her old-school technique. She would calmly drop globs of hot syrup in ice water, then test the consistency to know what stage the candy was at. Literally: did the blob of syrup turn into a hard ball or not.
It takes a lot of experience to feel confident with that method and not freak out about how fast the molten-hot syrup is bubbling, if it’s overcooking, if the ball is actually hard or is it sort of hard, and ultimately, will it pull out Papa’s dentures? You get the point.
Thankfully, we’ve come a long way since the 60s and we can all have an accurate, fast, digital thermometer on our doorstep, in a day, for less than $20.
A good thermometer will change the way you think about making candy!
It’s all very simple. Read and understand the process, prepare your ingredients and tools, then execute the plan.
Follow this post and hopefully you won’t just make killer peanut brittle just like the candy shops, but you’ll get the bug to make all kinds of amazing homemade candy at home!
10 Minute Peanut Brittle – Old Fashioned Country Cooking – Tastes Like Mamas!
FAQ
What to do with blanched raw peanuts?
What is the difference between raw peanuts and blanched peanuts?
Are blanched peanuts better than roasted?
Why didn’t my homemade peanut brittle get hard?
Does peanut brittle need water?
Water: Hard candies like peanut brittle require just enough water to dissolve the sugar. Nearly all of the water will evaporate during the cooking process. Corn syrup: Crucial crystal-blocker or “doctoring agent”. Without glucose syrup, the peanut brittle will recrystallize and develop a crumbly, gritty texture. Read more about corn syrup below.
Are blanched peanuts healthier than peanut butter?
Blanching is a technique used to inactivate some enzymes that affect the quality of products during and after processing. Peanut butter is obtained by processing roasted peanuts. We are talking about two different things but if we take into account that it is better to eat foods as natural as possible, then blanched peanuts are healthier because they have not been processed.
How do you clean peanut brittle?
Heat until the candy redissolves, dump it out, and proceed with cleaning. Let the brittle cool completely then wrap it in plastic to protect it from humidity. Peanut brittle is especially prone to absorbing water, and it will get sticky and crystallize if not wrapped tightly.
Can peanut brittle be refrigerated?
To store: Once it’s completely cooled, store peanut brittle in an airtight container at room temperature. Do not refrigerate as the moisture from the fridge will cause the brittle to soften. Store for 6-8 weeks. To Freeze: Peanut brittle can be frozen and stored up to 3 months.