Peanut Brittle | Community Recipes | Nigella's Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Why didn't my homemade peanut brittle get hard? ›

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 secret is in the baking soda. As the sugar is cooking and begins turning amber in color it accumulates small amounts of acid, and that acid reacts chemically with the alkaline baking soda releasing about a zillion minuscule bubbles of CO₂ that get trapped, making the sugar porous and, well… brittle.

#1 - Store in an airtight container

Keeping air out helps maintain your brittle's freshness by minimizing the amount of moisture that might come into contact with your sweet treat. In terms of material for your containers, it is totally up to your preference.

Water: Water helps the sugar completely dissolve. Salt: A pinch of salt enhances the other flavors. If you opt for salted butter, you can skip this ingredient. Peanuts: Of course, you'll need peanuts for this classic treat!

Just as in homemade syrup or caramel corn, baking soda causes a unique chemical reaction (basically a lot of rising foam) that is crucial in creating the right texture in peanut brittle. If you make it without baking soda but you will notice the brittle is a bit harder to bite through.

Once cooled and cracked, peanut brittle should be stored in an airtight container (it's okay to stack). Store in a cool dry place.

Those other liquid sugars have impurities that will burn at the higher temperature of making caramel, leading to a bitter-tasting brittle.

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.

Why did my peanut brittle turn out chewy? The likely cause is that the sugar mixture didn't reach the proper hard crack stage temperature. Ensuring it reaches 300˚F is key to getting that classic brittle texture.

Good news for all you peanut brittle lovers out there – yes, you can freeze peanut brittle! In fact, storing your brittle in the freezer can extend its shelf life for an extended period, ensuring that you have a delicious peanut treat to enjoy long after the holiday season has passed.

Is peanut brittle good for you? ›

Peanut brittle has one redeeming quality: peanuts. 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.

Why is my peanut brittle soft? If your peanut brittle is too soft, you didn't cook it long enough. It's important to use a candy thermometer and cook the sugar mixture until it reaches the hard crack stage.

If you do NOT have a thermometer, here's what you do. Take a very small cup of cold water and drop a bit of the mixture in. If it dissolves into the water, it's not ready. Mine took 18 minutes to reach the correct temperature, so around 15 minutes start trying the water test.

Buttering the inside of the cooking pan will prevent sugar crystals from sticking to the sides while the corn syrup, water, sugar and butter cook to 275 degrees.

Put it in a pan on low heat and very slowly melt it. Once it begins to melt you can increase the heat a bit. The trick to this is that you have to stir it constantly in order to keep the peanuts from burning. You're going to want to bring it back to 300F, then immediately pour into the prepared pan.

What's important to know is that the corn syrup controls the grain of the brittle so adding too little and you have a grainy textured brittle, while adding too much will result in a stringy and sticky brittle.

Dried peanuts may require boiling up to 24 hours until they soften. If your water is hard, full of minerals, or you are boiling at high altitude, then your boiling times for dried peanuts may be greater than 24 hours.

How long does it take for peanut brittle to harden? This microwave peanut brittle starts to harden almost immediately once you finish cooking it and stirring in the baking soda. It will be completely hardened and ready to break into pieces in just 30 minutes.