Southern Homemade Peanut Brittle Recipe (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.

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 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.

Recommended Equipment for making homemade Peanut Brittle:

aluminum foil or parchment paper. vegetable cooking spray.

Should you refrigerate peanut brittle? Store the brittle in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month to maintain the crisp. Moisture in the refrigerator would soften the brittle.

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.

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.

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.

I don't recommend substituting honey, molasses, or agave for the corn syrup. Those other liquid sugars have impurities that will burn at the higher temperature of making caramel, leading to a bitter-tasting brittle.

The peanut was known throughout the South as a goober pea. The word goober comes from the Congo name for peanuts – nguba.

What do Southerners call peanuts? ›

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.

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.

Heavy 6 quart Dutch Oven pot. Mine is an old 1970's Club Aluminum. It's perfect! You need a heavy THICK pot so it won't scorch.

You can spread the hot brittle mixture on parchment paper or a silpat liner, but I find the silpat liner a bit safer as it doesn't move around on the sheet pan like parchment has a tendency to. I've been able to keep brittle crisp for up to two months.

Didn't combine ingredients right. Didn't get it hot enough. You have to hit hard crack stage heat or it's not going to harden.

Dried peanuts will require a longer soaking time before cooking, so leave them to soak for at least 8 hours or overnight. Soaking the peanuts ensures that they will soften more easily when they are cooked, giving them their delicious texture.

What Makes it Brittle? The sugar will be cooked to 300ºF (149ºC)—hard crack stage; which when set up would be hard like a lollipop. But peanut brittle is delicate and you can easily bite into it—how? The secret is in the baking soda.

Don't try to spread the candy once it's on the baking sheet as it starts hardening almost immediately and spreading it doesn't work well. Let the peanut brittle cool for 30 minutes, then break it into pieces. Store it in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two months.