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Peanut Brittle

A community recipe by

Not tested or verified by Nigella.com

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Introduction

Do you want to know what will keep the men in your life happy? Nope, it's not as Jerry Hall says. It's all about peanuts and sugar. And it's easy peasy. Both my thirty something year old man and my two year old man go crazy for salty, sweet, crunchy peanut brittle. Maybe it's because it's shiny, maybe it's the satisfying crack as it's broken. Who knows. I'm pleased anyway as it's a storecupboard make. The only bad thing about this recipe is that it all needs gobbling up in about 2 days. It starts to ooze sugar and stickiness if you leave it any longer. It won't last that long though. So nothing to lose sleep over. Dentists may disagree that this is the only bad thing.

Do you want to know what will keep the men in your life happy? Nope, it's not as Jerry Hall says. It's all about peanuts and sugar. And it's easy peasy. Both my thirty something year old man and my two year old man go crazy for salty, sweet, crunchy peanut brittle. Maybe it's because it's shiny, maybe it's the satisfying crack as it's broken. Who knows. I'm pleased anyway as it's a storecupboard make. The only bad thing about this recipe is that it all needs gobbling up in about 2 days. It starts to ooze sugar and stickiness if you leave it any longer. It won't last that long though. So nothing to lose sleep over. Dentists may disagree that this is the only bad thing.

Ingredients

Serves: 6

Metric Cups
  • 100 grams salted peanuts
  • 100 grams caster sugar
  • 3½ ounces salted peanuts
  • 3½ ounces superfine sugar

Method

Peanut Brittle is a community recipe submitted by Recipe Lady and has not been tested by Nigella.com so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe.

  • Take your nerves of steel and pour the sugar into a saucepan and pop onto a low heat.
  • Shake the pan a little as it starts to melt. You need to be brave and wait until the sugar starts to clump together, then goes a slightly silvery/greyish see through colour, then it'll start to turn caramel in colour... stay with it. You want a deep dark mahogany colour.
  • Once it's dark and caramelly and shimmery add the peanuts.
  • Then pour the lot onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Leave alone and out of reach of small or large fingers. Molten sugar is lethal. (I was once told that boiling hot sugary tea is the number one weapon of choice in prisons... who knows if this is true but it certainly makes me respect the sugar.)
  • Once cold it will have set as hard as rock. Break into shards with your hands and enjoy with ice-cream, on top of a chocolate tart, or just plain and simple by itself.
  • Take your nerves of steel and pour the sugar into a saucepan and pop onto a low heat.
  • Shake the pan a little as it starts to melt. You need to be brave and wait until the sugar starts to clump together, then goes a slightly silvery/greyish see through colour, then it'll start to turn caramel in colour... stay with it. You want a deep dark mahogany colour.
  • Once it's dark and caramelly and shimmery add the peanuts.
  • Then pour the lot onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Leave alone and out of reach of small or large fingers. Molten sugar is lethal. (I was once told that boiling hot sugary tea is the number one weapon of choice in prisons... who knows if this is true but it certainly makes me respect the sugar.)
  • Once cold it will have set as hard as rock. Break into shards with your hands and enjoy with ice-cream, on top of a chocolate tart, or just plain and simple by itself.
  • Tell us what you think

    What 6 Others have said

    • Really easy, but be careful not to cook at too high a heat. Agree with other comments, try half amount of nuts. Delicious!

      Posted by DerekJam on 20th September 2017
    • Has anyone tried this with 'Golden' caster sugar? I want to know if it's the same or better? Thanks.

      Posted by Sassyzen on 7th December 2015
    • Tried this recipe tonight but I just doubled the sugar and it is wonderful

      Posted by Lithanya on 4th December 2014
    • I followed the measurement and made it with roasted mixed nuts and it was yumm.

      Posted by Thomosue on 29th September 2014
    • I tried it today and recipe amounts are wrong, far too many nuts, only needed about 50g It was all nut and "hey where's the toffee" ! In the bin it went.

      Posted by TomsTum on 13th September 2014
    • At first I thought the recipe might have been inaccurate, however i went ahead and tried it and found that for 100g of caster sugar there is way too much peanuts. With most of the volume made up of the nuts, you don't quite get that "slab" of peanut brittle you're looking for.

      Posted by timfin77 on 3rd February 2013
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