Homemade peanut brittle is an easy, peanutty sweet treat that satisfies your sweet tooth and crunchy cravings. Bite-sized golden pieces of brittle with peanuts will have coming back for more!
You don’t need a candy thermometer to make this old-fashioned peanut brittle. I’ll show you how to make it without one along with a special “pulling” technique. It’s the only recipe that I use for making Homemade Peanut Brittle.
Don’t worry if you are not an experienced candy maker or know anything about “crack stage” orhow to temper chocolate. (By the way, there is no chocolate in this recipe.)
This recipe came from my Southern mother-in-law. To make her peanut brittle, you need two cups of raw or parched peanuts. (I used the entire contents of a 16-ounce bag of parched peanuts. The more nuts the merrier, in my opinion.)
Let’s look at how to make this Southern treat.
🥘 Ingredients
To make this peanut brittle recipe, you need the following ingredients:
⅔ cup light corn syrup
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
2 cups raw peanuts
1 tablespoon baking soda
🔪How To Make Peanut Brittle
In a large saucepan, combine the nuts with corn syrup and sugar and cook over medium-high heat until it turns honey-colored. It takes me about 15 minutes.
Once the color becomes rich, golden brown, add baking soda.
A chemical reaction will occur and the mixture will foam and lighten in color.
Spread the candy mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or one that has been well-greased. (A couple of tablespoons of butter should do the trick.) Or you can go all Alton Brown and use a Silpat liner (silicone baking mat).
Spread the mixture out a bit using a wooden spoon or spatula.
💭Tips
Before it has completely cooled, take two forks and “pull” the brittle apart. This technique set my mother-in-law’s brittle apart from all others that I have tried. The pulled brittle is easier to eat than the thick brittle that is typically sold in stores.
You have to be careful because the brittle is really hot. Also, do not attempt to make peanut brittle when it is humid outside or while it is raining. It’s very similar to making divinity. Humidity and peanut brittle are not friends.
Peanut brittle makes a great edible gift during the holiday season. Layer it in a glass jar and tie a festive ribbon. Your gift recipients will thank you for this family favorite delicious treat.
Frequently Asked Questions About Peanut Brittle
How do you store peanut brittle?
Store peanut brittle in an airtight container at room temperature for 6 to 8 weeks.
Where can I buy raw peanuts?
Look for raw peanuts in the produce section at your local grocery store.
Vernel’s Homemade Peanut Brittle
You don’t need a candy thermometer to make this peanut brittle. The special “pulling” technique creates sweet, crunchy strands of sugar and nuts that you will love.
4.58 from 7 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 5 minutesminutes
Cook Time: 15 minutesminutes
Total Time: 20 minutesminutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 578kcal
Author: Lynda – Southern Kissed
Ingredients
⅔cuplight corn syrup
1 ½cupssugar
2cupsraw peanuts
1tablespoonbaking soda
Instructions
Grease, butter, or line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside
Mix together corn syrup, sugar and raw peanuts in a large saucepan.
Cook over medium-high heat until mixture turns honey colored.
Remove from heat. Add baking soda and stir well.
Pour mixture onto prepared baking sheet. As soon as brittle has set, use utensils to pull and stretch brittle into pieces. Caution: Brittle will be very hot.
The nice thing about this peanut brittle recipe is that you don’t have to have a candy thermometer to make it. Once you have made it a few times, you learn how to judge the process by the colors of the mixture.
Be sure to come back and tell us how your homemade peanut brittle turned out!
Hungry for more Southern favorites? Be sure to check out these other delicious recipes:
Easy Chicken and Dumplings – Both a family and reader favorite, this recipe is easy to make and is Southern comfort food at its finest.
Buttermilk Biscuits – You only need three simple ingredients to make these light and fluffy biscuits. They’re perfect for serving alongside a meal or stuffed with meat, egg, and cheese for the main course.
Old Fashioned Tea Cakes – This recipe is an authentic Southern recipe – it was transcribed while my mother-in-law made them by heart.
Classic Pound Cake– This recipe comes from Lulu Buffet, the sister of singer Jimmy Buffet. It’s a great treat to enjoy with company.
Baking soda is also very important at this stage since it reacts to the heat, creating carbon dioxide that aerates the caramel, enabling it to snap when someone bites into it rather than requiring them to gnaw at it until it breaks or pulls apart.
The main reason why peanut brittle doesn't get hard and have the crunch we expect is because the sugar was not cooked long enough. The sugar needs to be cooked to what is called the hard crack stage, 300ºF.
The general origin story of peanut brittle is that it came from the South, and that a Southern woman in the second half of the 19th century came up with peanut brittle by accidentally putting baking soda into her taffy instead of cream of tartar.
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.
This is because you did not cook it long enough in the microwave. If the texture of the peanut brittle is sticky, and not crunchy, this means that you need to cook the mixture longer, until it reaches 300°F.
Peanut brittle turning white, often referred to as "sugaring," is typically the result of crystallization of the sugar in the candy. This crystallization can make the brittle appear white or cloudy rather than having a clear, glass-like consistency.
If you overcook the brittle, it could be bitter or burnt. If you undercook it, the brittle won't properly set and the end result will be sticky. A thermometer is an accessible and inexpensive way to monitor temperature and ensure properly cooked brittle. Make sure your baking soda is fresh and active.
You will want the cookie sheet to be non-stick. Use parchment paper, a silicone baking sheet or a greased cookie sheet. Spread the peanut brittle as thin as you can. Immediately add your sea salt.
It is important to coat cookie sheets with butter and put in the freezer to get them really cold before you need to pour the brittle. After you pour the candy you should put the pans in the fridge or outside if it is cold, so the brittle will set up quickly and stay fluffy.
A Peanut By Any Other Name Would Be As Unappreciated
"The ground pea of the South, or as it is sometimes called, the gouber or pindar pea," said one patent application in 1848. "The earthnut, groundnut, goober, pindar or peanut" is how the Department of Agriculture phrased it.
Outside of that single ingredient, peanut brittle is painfully unhealthy. It contains: sugar, corn syrup, and butter, all of which are unhealthy for your body in different ways. But, peanut brittle becomes terrible for your teeth once all of those ingredients are combined into the final product.
Absolutely! If you want to extend the life of your peanut brittle, you can freeze it. But, make sure it is completely cooled, as moisture is an enemy of peanut brittle. Ensure the brittle pieces are separated by parchment paper to prevent them from sticking together.
Reviving stale peanut brittle is possible to some extent. You can try placing the stale peanut brittle on a baking sheet and gently heating it in an oven at a low temperature, around 250°F (120°C), for a few minutes.
Why is it too hard? Using baking soda usually prevents peanut brittle from being too, well, brittle. However, if you cook the candy past the set temperature or overwork the candy once you spread it out onto the cookie sheet, that can cause it to become very hard and difficult to bite through.
Working quickly, pour into prepared 10×15 pan. To keep the brittle light and airy, do not spread or flatten the mixture. Instead, let it flow freely. Place in a cool area and leave until completely cooled, about 2-3 hours.
Baking soda helps to aerate brittle — it literally makes the molten candy bubble in the pot — to create a brittle with an airy, almost honeycomblike texture that crunches easily when eaten.
Set the pieces aside on another lightly buttered baking sheet. When cool, break the brittle into pieces with your hands (Step 7), the handle of a wooden spoon or back of a heavy knife. Once completely cooled, store the candy in an airtight container to prevent it from becoming sticky.
The soda reacts with the acid to make bubbles, and the syrup foams. When the cooked syrup is poured out and begins to harden, many of the tiny bubbles are trapped before they can escape (another reason the baking soda is added at the end).
Introduction: My name is Fr. Dewey Fisher, I am a powerful, open, faithful, combative, spotless, faithful, fair person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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