Peanut Brittle.
Mar. 8th, 2019 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickHere in the Mid-Atlantic, there's about two weeks left before humidity becomes A Thing again. In this space of time, you can still have peanut brittle if you want it and haven't managed it yet this year. After humidity becomes A Thing, though, efforts in the general direction of peanut brittle are disappointing and you should really wait until the cold of November to give it a go.
Also, since peanut brittle goes directly to your ass and stays there for the next thirty years, it is critical to make the absolute best peanut brittle possible. If you're gonna eat this shit, which is absolutely no good for you, you ought make sure it's worth it. (Old Dominion, you are not worth it. Planter's? You are also not worth it. The stuff below the cut... well... yeah. Once a year, it is totally worth it.)
You're going to need a good candy thermometer that goes up to at least 300 degrees safely. And you will really enjoy having a silicon spatula and a sheet of parchment paper and a cookie sheet and a large heavy saucepan.
INGREDIENTS
about 3 cups raw shelled peanuts (I use Pardoe's, available from my Weis grocery. If you have access to Pardoe's, you'll need to buy two bags but you'll only use about a bag and a half. Regardless of brand, you want to be starting with unsalted, uncooked, fresh shelled peanuts with no skins and nothing yet done to them. Double-check that they don't taste stale by trying one before you roast them.)
1 Tbsp real (not fake) vanilla
6 Tbsp butter
2.5 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup light Karo syrup
3/4 teasp salt
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with a sheet of parchment paper. This is what you are going to pour the completed brittle out onto. The brittle will not stick to the parchment paper and cleanup will be super easy. Use the parchment paper.
Step 2: Take 1 cup of the raw shelled peanuts. Chop into coarse. You're aiming for not-a-lotta-whole-peanuts-left but not a powder. Chop. Coarse. More coarse than the stuff people get on their ice cream cones.
Step 3: Toast the chopped peanuts in the oven until they are toasted and peanut smelling and some of them are a little browner than you like. Check on them FREQUENTLY and stir them around a little to get an even toasting. (I use a cast iron frying pan for the toasting.)
Step 4: When they're toasted enough, put the toasted chopped peanuts in a metal bowl for later.
Step 5: Toast the other two cups (unchopped) of peanuts, like you did the chopped ones. They will take longer but it's the same idea. When they're done, dump them in the metal bowl with the chopped pieces.
This is a stupid amount of steps and we're not even to the brittle part. Wth,which_chick, seriously, what's with the make-work bullshit here?
*sigh*
You are roasting the peanuts yourself because it is DEAD EASY and generates an ORDER OF MAGNITUDE of difference in peanut-brittle quality.
You are doing the nut-toasting in two batches because the chopped pieces toast a lot faster than the whole nuts and if you did them together they would burn before the whole nuts got toasted.
You are doing the chopping BEFORE toasting rather than after the toasting because you want the peanuts to be still warm when you mix them into the brittle-mixture. If you waited for them to cool off enough to be choppable after roasting, the peanuts would not be warm when you mixed them into the brittle-mixture.
Having the peanuts be warm when they are mixed into the brittle-mixture means that you can use the brittle-mixture to lock in all the delicious volatile compounds found in freshly-roasted peanuts. See, there are a lot of volatile compounds related to smell/taste that are only found in freshly-roasted peanuts that are still warm. (Because they are volatile compounds. They evaporate or whatever as the peanuts cool. They don't HANG AROUND. It's like the fucking definition of volatile to do this.)
So if you plan it right, you can LOCK IN these flavor elements by encasing the freshly-roasted still-warm peanuts in sugary goodness that crystallizes around them and seals in the flavor, but you have to have freshly-roasted peanuts to work with or there's no fucking flavor to lock in.
And that's why we are doing all this make-work bullshit -- so that you can have BETTER FUCKING PEANUT BRITTLE. If you are OK with eating shitty peanut brittle, well, that's your choice. I won't stop you.
Step 7 (can be done concurrently with step 5 if you don't get distracted and forget about the peanuts): Measure out 1 Tbsp of vanilla and put it in a custard cup next to the stove. When you need it, you will need it in a hurry and won't have time to measure.
Step 8 (can be done concurrently with step 5): Combine sugar, Karo, water, salt, butter in saucepan, bring to boil. Boil until 300F (Hard Crack) on candy thermometer. I stir with a silicone spatula thing. It won't melt and it doesn't let much stick to it. Works for me, anyway. 300F is very hot. Do not lick spatula or spill the sugar stuff on you. It's very hot and can cause serious burns. PEANUTS NEED TO BE DONE ROASTING BEFORE BRITTLE MIX REACHES 300F though this is typically not a problem with a normally functioning oven that is already warm. But anyway, take note.
Step 9: When brittle mix reaches 300F, remove from heat. Quickly stir in vanilla. It'll boil up a little, but stir briskly anyway.
Step 10: Once you figure vanilla is mixed in pretty well, dump in all peanuts. Stir to coat. I like a lot of peanuts and not a ton of brittle in my peanut brittle, so you need to work to get everything fully coated. Don't dither.
Step 11: Pour peanut brittle onto parchment-lined cookie sheet. Spread out / flatten with spatula until it's more or less a peanut-thick layer. Do the best you can. It won't stay workable forever, so this is another hustle-through project where good-enough is probably just fine.
Step 12: Pour water in the empty brittle-cooking pan. Let it sit half an hour or so before trying to rinse it out. This lets the remaining brittle in the pan dissolve without any effort from you.
Step 13: When bottom of cookie sheet is cool to the touch, break up the brittle into reasonable size pieces, store in airtight container. Share with people who rather like peanut brittle.
Also, since peanut brittle goes directly to your ass and stays there for the next thirty years, it is critical to make the absolute best peanut brittle possible. If you're gonna eat this shit, which is absolutely no good for you, you ought make sure it's worth it. (Old Dominion, you are not worth it. Planter's? You are also not worth it. The stuff below the cut... well... yeah. Once a year, it is totally worth it.)
You're going to need a good candy thermometer that goes up to at least 300 degrees safely. And you will really enjoy having a silicon spatula and a sheet of parchment paper and a cookie sheet and a large heavy saucepan.
INGREDIENTS
about 3 cups raw shelled peanuts (I use Pardoe's, available from my Weis grocery. If you have access to Pardoe's, you'll need to buy two bags but you'll only use about a bag and a half. Regardless of brand, you want to be starting with unsalted, uncooked, fresh shelled peanuts with no skins and nothing yet done to them. Double-check that they don't taste stale by trying one before you roast them.)
1 Tbsp real (not fake) vanilla
6 Tbsp butter
2.5 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup light Karo syrup
3/4 teasp salt
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with a sheet of parchment paper. This is what you are going to pour the completed brittle out onto. The brittle will not stick to the parchment paper and cleanup will be super easy. Use the parchment paper.
Step 2: Take 1 cup of the raw shelled peanuts. Chop into coarse. You're aiming for not-a-lotta-whole-peanuts-left but not a powder. Chop. Coarse. More coarse than the stuff people get on their ice cream cones.
Step 3: Toast the chopped peanuts in the oven until they are toasted and peanut smelling and some of them are a little browner than you like. Check on them FREQUENTLY and stir them around a little to get an even toasting. (I use a cast iron frying pan for the toasting.)
Step 4: When they're toasted enough, put the toasted chopped peanuts in a metal bowl for later.
Step 5: Toast the other two cups (unchopped) of peanuts, like you did the chopped ones. They will take longer but it's the same idea. When they're done, dump them in the metal bowl with the chopped pieces.
This is a stupid amount of steps and we're not even to the brittle part. Wth,
which_chick, seriously, what's with the make-work bullshit here?*sigh*
You are roasting the peanuts yourself because it is DEAD EASY and generates an ORDER OF MAGNITUDE of difference in peanut-brittle quality.
You are doing the nut-toasting in two batches because the chopped pieces toast a lot faster than the whole nuts and if you did them together they would burn before the whole nuts got toasted.
You are doing the chopping BEFORE toasting rather than after the toasting because you want the peanuts to be still warm when you mix them into the brittle-mixture. If you waited for them to cool off enough to be choppable after roasting, the peanuts would not be warm when you mixed them into the brittle-mixture.
Having the peanuts be warm when they are mixed into the brittle-mixture means that you can use the brittle-mixture to lock in all the delicious volatile compounds found in freshly-roasted peanuts. See, there are a lot of volatile compounds related to smell/taste that are only found in freshly-roasted peanuts that are still warm. (Because they are volatile compounds. They evaporate or whatever as the peanuts cool. They don't HANG AROUND. It's like the fucking definition of volatile to do this.)
So if you plan it right, you can LOCK IN these flavor elements by encasing the freshly-roasted still-warm peanuts in sugary goodness that crystallizes around them and seals in the flavor, but you have to have freshly-roasted peanuts to work with or there's no fucking flavor to lock in.
And that's why we are doing all this make-work bullshit -- so that you can have BETTER FUCKING PEANUT BRITTLE. If you are OK with eating shitty peanut brittle, well, that's your choice. I won't stop you.
Step 7 (can be done concurrently with step 5 if you don't get distracted and forget about the peanuts): Measure out 1 Tbsp of vanilla and put it in a custard cup next to the stove. When you need it, you will need it in a hurry and won't have time to measure.
Step 8 (can be done concurrently with step 5): Combine sugar, Karo, water, salt, butter in saucepan, bring to boil. Boil until 300F (Hard Crack) on candy thermometer. I stir with a silicone spatula thing. It won't melt and it doesn't let much stick to it. Works for me, anyway. 300F is very hot. Do not lick spatula or spill the sugar stuff on you. It's very hot and can cause serious burns. PEANUTS NEED TO BE DONE ROASTING BEFORE BRITTLE MIX REACHES 300F though this is typically not a problem with a normally functioning oven that is already warm. But anyway, take note.
Step 9: When brittle mix reaches 300F, remove from heat. Quickly stir in vanilla. It'll boil up a little, but stir briskly anyway.
Step 10: Once you figure vanilla is mixed in pretty well, dump in all peanuts. Stir to coat. I like a lot of peanuts and not a ton of brittle in my peanut brittle, so you need to work to get everything fully coated. Don't dither.
Step 11: Pour peanut brittle onto parchment-lined cookie sheet. Spread out / flatten with spatula until it's more or less a peanut-thick layer. Do the best you can. It won't stay workable forever, so this is another hustle-through project where good-enough is probably just fine.
Step 12: Pour water in the empty brittle-cooking pan. Let it sit half an hour or so before trying to rinse it out. This lets the remaining brittle in the pan dissolve without any effort from you.
Step 13: When bottom of cookie sheet is cool to the touch, break up the brittle into reasonable size pieces, store in airtight container. Share with people who rather like peanut brittle.
