Thursday - October 25, 2012

A Good Mix

Another peanut brittle recipe. I made this the other night and it came out pretty darn good. Best recipe mix so far. A touch of vanilla adds some roundness, the cream of tartar slows the crystallization down a lot, and lets you get by with using less baking soda. A taste of molasses adds a bit of dusky flavor without taking the risk of overcooking the mix and burning the sugar and the nuts. So not only is it a good recipe, it’s a smart one that’s fool-resistant.

I’m still not sure whether to use cocktail peanuts or dry roast peanuts, so I used a mixture of both. I am sure that using flavorful, fresh, brand name nuts is the way to go; bargain store nuts just wimp out. And remember, use boiling water to clean out your pot once the caramelized sugar has hardened on. Otherwise you’re in for hours of scrubbing.

1/8 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cups white cane sugar
3 tbs molasses
1/2 cup white Karo corn syrup
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup cocktail peanuts ( a small jar’s worth )
3/4 cup dry roast peanuts
2 1/4 tbs cold butter
full teakettle of water

1 medium saucepan with high sides
1 very clean edgeless standard sized baking sheet
1 accurate fast reading thermometer, either digital or candy style, calibrated against boiling water
1 ovenproof bowl, dish, or pan

Take the cold butter and rub it vigorously around on the baking sheet. Slice the rest into 8 bits and leave it to soften.

Add the water, salt, cream of tartar to the saucepan and stir gently. Start it heating over medium heat. Add the molasses and the Karo, stir. When the water starts to steam gently add the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Take the heat up a notch.

Keep stirring. Be patient. The mix will boil. And boil. And boil. What we’re doing at this stage is driving off the water, which was just a carrier for the sugar.

Start the oven, set it to 220°F or just more than Warm. Put the peanuts in the ovenproof bowl and heat them. This is done to slow things down; when we add cold peanuts to hot syrup the temperature plummets and the stuff hardens up too fast, so warm peanuts will cool things less. Don’t recook the peanuts, just get them up to around 200° or so.

Keep stirring. As the temperature climbs to around 300° F make sure that you have everything right at hand, ready to go. The final step goes together in about 4 seconds, so be ready for it. The cream of tartar will make the syrup bubble like mad. Keep the burner set low enough so that you get a good rolling boil, but not one that climbs up the sides of the saucepan.

Beware! At 320°F the syrup will caramelize, and that process will be quite rapid. So watch carefully and keep stirring gently.

At 310°F turn on the teakettle on another burner, add the peanuts, and take the heat up one small notch. You do not want to scorch the nuts. So in they go, stir, and keep stirring for about a minute to get them all coated. The mix should now be just about to turn golden brown, so drop in the butter and stir it in. It will sizzle and boil.

Turn off the burner and take the pan off. Stir in the baking soda. This will cause lots more bubbles. We want those, but we don’t want to use so much baking soda that it leaves a taste behind. 1/2 tsp isn’t quite enough, 1 tsp is too much, so we’ll use a scant 3/4 tsp. And stir!!

Put the baking sheet on top of the stove over the burner you just turned off, and carefully pour the whole pot onto it, starting at the end over the burner. Get every last bit out with a spoon. It will run down the sheet a little and spread out. This recipe will cover just about the entire sheet, one peanut thick, with the caramelized syrup perhaps 1/8” thick. Let it cool. If you did it right, you’ll have a peanut rich golden puddle, the same color as a caramel or maybe just a tiny bit darker. Take the sheet off the stove and put it on a cooling rack. Turn off the oven.

Let it cool. When the water boils, use it to melt any syrup remaining in the saucepan, on your spoons, and on the thermometer.

While the mixture cools and you’ve got the dishes done, make some room in the freezer or fridge to put the baking sheet in. We want to take it from room temperature down to cold. Frozen is Ok too, but chilled is good enough.

When the stuff is cold, and you’ve had the time to ask yourself how on earth you’re going to get this puddle of frozen glue off your good cookie sheet, take the sheet in your hands and flex it. A couple of twists and some gentle arching, and the whole thing will break into chunks and pop right off. Assuming you don’t eat it all in one go, you can wrap it in wax paper and store it in a box for a few days. If you want a saltier flavor you can dust the buttered side lightly with some kosher salt.

I’d supply a picture, but our batch didn’t last that long.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/25/2012 at 01:15 PM   
Filed Under: • Fine-Dining •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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