Peanut Brittle Problem.

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

LittlJ

Assistant Cook
Joined
Dec 11, 2009
Messages
8
Location
Wisconsin
Hi, new here as I don't know what else to do:(. Have an old peanut Brittle recipe that I have been making for years. The last few years it has been hard and then gets gummy when you chew it. Usually cook to soft ball then add nuts and cook to hardball add soda and pour. Should I cook to a higher temp? Any advice or help would be much apprecited. Thank you
 
I had a problem on year and I discovered it was the sugar.
I purchased the store brand that was on sale. NEVER EVER again
Always use Domininos Sugar, Some of the store brand use a beet sugar.
 
This thread got me curious, since i havnt had peanut brittle in 30 + years. I found a microwave recipe that worked like a charm ( the first time).

Im going to try it again today to see if it was just a fluke, or the recipe will be a consistent one, but it was so simple.
 
I'm a big fan of the microwave recipe, for ease and time. My daughter and I have made mulitple batches one after the other for gifts and used different nuts, sometimes mixed and sometimes pecans in place of peanuts.
 
I had this problem one time and I found out that if the humidity is high, the peanut brittle will be chewy. Now I make sure the humidity is low before I make it and I've never had a problem since.
 
Welcome to DC!

Thanks for bringing this thread back up! Have been craving some peanut brittle.
 
I had a problem on year and I discovered it was the sugar.
I purchased the store brand that was on sale. NEVER EVER again
Always use Domininos Sugar, Some of the store brand use a beet sugar.

The further West you live, the more likely you are to find beet sugar on the shelfs in the grocery store. U & I sugar which is a big name brand out west is beet sugar. The U and I stand for Utah and Idaho. The two states that have some of the largest beet farms in the nation. Beet sugar is very popular in Europe. :angel:
 
I think the temperature you are heating it to is way too low.

When heating the sugar initially, you want to bring the temperature to soft ball stage (235-240F). This part is correct. Whether you add the peanuts now or later is really up to you. But you want to bring the mixture to the hard crack stage (300-310F), not the hard ball stage (250-265F).

I typically aim for the hard ball stage when I make my taffies.


Try to aim for exactly 300F. That is my ideal hard candy temperature.


Good luck. :)




And then I go back to the main thread to see when the original was posted.... 2009, hahaha. Oh well, use for future reference folks!
 
Last edited:
I want to try to make peanut brittle too. I was thinking about mixing in almonds or macadania nuts as well! It would be helpful to have a candy thermometer though, which I don't own yet.
 
I want to try to make peanut brittle too. I was thinking about mixing in almonds or macadania nuts as well! It would be helpful to have a candy thermometer though, which I don't own yet.
You definitely want to use a candy thermometer. While you can test with ice water, if you are not familiar with how it should look, you may get bad results without one.
 
Hope this isn't too late

Made some brittle last night so I could add to this thread...wanted to make certain I could make it right.

I didn't use a candy thermometer. I don't own one. The comment about hard crack stage is correct. Has to get to 300F - 310F or it won't get hard.

I used the meat thermometer until it hit 220F then had to use the cold water test. It was spot on accurate. Once it reached 220F, I stood over the brittle and stirred it constantly, slowly raising the temperature.

Using a metal spoon, every minute or so, I would dip the spoon into the liquid brittle mixture and ever so gently drop a tiny little ball into the cold water. When it cooled, I just pulled it out of the dish. When it came out as an intricate little stringy thing that broke in my fingers, I knew I had brittle.

I had made a chocolate/cherry sauce in the blender before I started cooking the brittle. I took the mixture off the stove immediately when it reached hard brittle stage and put 3T of the chocolate/cherry sauce into the brittle and stirred it...then immediately poured it into the waiting pan and let it sit for 10 mins on the counter top.

After 10 mins, I put it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes and pulled it out, and tested the brittle. After breaking off a few small pieces, I popped it into the freezer for 30 minutes. When it came out, WOW! totally delish, totally ready to go.

It was actually ready when it came out of the fridge, but I wanted to cool it more. It was more brittle...strength-wise when I took it out of the freezer. It is PERFECT.

Not so hard. But took a while to make. Totally worth it.

Hope it worked out for you.
19849-albums972-picture5647.jpg
[/IMG]​
 
I had a problem on year and I discovered it was the sugar.
I purchased the store brand that was on sale. NEVER EVER again
Always use Domininos Sugar, Some of the store brand use a beet sugar.
That's interesting because I've found that beet sugar and cane sugar behave differently when used in jam making. Jam made with cane sugars sets better than that made with beet sugar.
 
Hm, I remember seeing "pure cane sugar" on some bags of sugar. I don't remember ever seeing that it was beet sugar. I wonder if I can get beet sugar here. It might make some of my Danish recipes work better. It's beet sugar by default in Denmark, even the brown sugar (it's made by adding molasses).
 
Hm, I remember seeing "pure cane sugar" on some bags of sugar. I don't remember ever seeing that it was beet sugar. I wonder if I can get beet sugar here. It might make some of my Danish recipes work better. It's beet sugar by default in Denmark, even the brown sugar (it's made by adding molasses).

I'm from the Imperial Valley in Southern Calif. There is a C & H sugar...made from sugar beets.. It's Calif & Hawaii brand. The brittle I made the other night was Walmart brand. Haven't checked yo see what kind it is.
 
C&H was originally owned by the Mormon Church. Domino Sugar recently bought them out. So now I am wondering if they will switch it over to cane sugar and put the sugar beet farms out of business. Or was the buyout in order to be able to control he sugar market. :angel:
 
C&H was originally owned by the Mormon Church. Domino Sugar recently bought them out. So now I am wondering if they will switch it over to cane sugar and put the sugar beet farms out of business. Or was the buyout in order to be able to control he sugar market. :angel:

I was in Safeway today. They had C&H. Is the name change just for certain parts of the country? Now you have me wondering about sugar...Heck...everyone does with all these posts. Will ask the Executive Chef tomorrow. See what he says. He'll probably tell me to research it.:ROFLMAO:
 
Back
Top Bottom