Thursday, November 29, 2007

Peanut Brittle... from the microwave!

Peanut brittle is a well received gift, especially by most men, and is very easy to make. Give this recipe a try; you'll be surprised at how easy it is, and how it compares to store-bought.

First, we must gather our ingredients!
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup roasted, salted peanuts
1 tsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda


In a 1 1/2 quart, microwave safe bowl combine the corn syrup and sugar. Stir well. This mixture will be thick.









Pop the mixture in the microwave, uncovered. Cook 4-5 minutes.








Stir in one cup of peanuts.








The mixture will look like this. Place the bowl back into the microwave, and cook for another 3-5 minutes.







It will look like this. Add the butter, and vanilla. Stir well. Microwave for another 1-2 minutes.






Add the baking soda. Gently stir until the mixture is foamy, and the baking soda is fully incorporated.








It's very sticky, and hot!







Pour the mixture onto a buttered cookie sheet. let cool about 30 minutes.





Break into pieces. Each recipe makes one pound of brittle.








An alternative to the cookie sheet! Butter two pie plates, and pour half of the hot mixture into each plate. Let cool.







Remove from the pie plates, and present a round disk of peanut brittle, letting the recipient break it into pieces on their own.







This makes for a lovely presentation! One half pound per disk!







Speaking of presentation, here are a few cute ways to package your peanut brittle, or any food gift.





How about some Christmas themed Chinese take out boxes?








Tiny gift bags









Goodie bags with pretty seals







You can even get Christmas Ziploc bags that are excellent for packing up your holiday treats!

20 comments:

Elise @A Path Made Straight said...

Corban was just saying to me the other day, "Mama, you should make peanut brittle again! It's soooooooo good!" Nevermind that the one and only time I did, it was completely inedible.
He will be happy to see me try again, and even happier to taste it this time - thank you! :)

Christie Belle said...

Oooo, cool!!! I love peanut brittle and this has to be the easiest recipe. Guess what's going on my grocery list, lol. I'm excited about making this, it looks delicious. Thanks for posting the pics of the process so I can absolutely know I'm doing it right;o)

Momala said...

Another candy recipe I need to try! I have been wanting to make peanut brittle, and this recipe looks so easy! I still have to buy the flavor oils for your last candy recipe, but I did buy the cutest container to put it in! I'll blog about it when I make it.

Karen said...

Looks so good! We love anything with nuts in it around here, and *quick* is good too!
Love those little presentation boxes, I have a few and they are very handy.

Unknown said...

I've used all those great ideas for packaging. I always buy them AFTER Christmas for the next year. I bet you do too.

Thanks for the recipe and the great ideas. This might be just the thing for the folks at the office.

Short Stop said...

I LOVE this idea, Tracy. The recipe looks amazingly easy, but the ideas for presentation are great, too! I love the idea of giving it as a round disk and letting the recipient break it apart!

Thank you for sharing! You are so very talented and creative!

Samantha said...

Oh my goodness! You have no idea how yummy that looks to me right now. Could you bring some over to my house :) I love peanut brittle, and could probably eat the whole thing by myself.

randi said...

We made Peanut Brittle in the microwave too! It comes out great and my hubby eats half of it before we can give it to people!

Gena said...

I have never tried this, but I think I will this year. My mother loves peanut brittle as do all of her sisters. I love the idea of the round disk to give each of them.

Thanks for the recipe!

HsKubes said...

What a lovely idea. Thank you for sharing your microwave recipe. ;o)

~ Christina

Melissa said...

Looks delicious!!!

Melissa!

Sharon said...

We started making peanut brittle this way too. It is so easy!! We've made it with pecans and walnuts instead of peanuts. Very Good!!

Lori said...

What a great idea to give Christmas goodies in festive gift boxes or bags.

Jennifer said...

I'm with Christie Belle, that's the best recipe for Peanut Brittle I've seen. It's on my "to do" list! I bet it tastes so yummy!

Jennifer in MS said...

I have that recipe and it's YUMMY! I love peanut brittle! I'll be making it soon!

KansasA said...

Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! I have made it and it will make a great addition to my Christmas baskets :) So simple and so easy!
http://kansasa.blogspot.com/2007/12/peanut-brittle-in-microwave.html

Dawn said...

Wow, thanks for sharing. I have been blog hopping this morning and came here from Kansas's blog. I make all my candy recipes in the microwave or electic fry pan and have some on my blog under Taste of Tuesday. I will definitely be trying this recipe.

cde said...

First guy responding. Just made these tonight and it smells so good. Haven't tasted them yet since they are cooling, (And seeing 1 cup/8oz of sugar+4oz of Corn Syrup made an upset stomach even more upset :D
Instead of a cookie sheet/tin or a pie tins, I used 2 cupcake tins, filling 8 holes to mostly the top and 1 to the middle (Though next time I would fill 2/3rds to the top of 12 holes) I also had to makeshift the tsp sizings (.15 oz = 1/6th of a shot glass >_>)

Anyway, I'm not a cook, or kitchen minded, so a microwave recipe falls right up my alley, next to ramen and grilled cheese (Not that I can't cook simple things like eggs or rice or steak, using the oven is my trouble). So I do not know how I can change the recipe. My questions:

Can I use CountryCrock/Margarine instead of butter?
Is the vanilla just for flavoring? If so, can I just change it for another extract, like anise or lemon?
And is cooking like chemistry where you can make half the amount of something by halving all the ingredients by weight? Since all the ingredients are listed in volume, can I just cut the volume in half (1 cup becomes 1/2 cup, 1 tsp becomes 1/2 tsp?)?

Please let me know, cause this would be awesome (Hmmm, 1/4 pound anise flavored peanut brittle on demand)

Tracy said...

Hello CDE,

WOW! You were ambitious last night. I'll try to answer your questions for you.

Can I use CountryCrock/Margarine instead of butter?

Country crock? I wouldn't. It's made up mostly of water. Land O' Lakes margarine in sticks(only THIS brand), probably. This is the only margarine that I'll use in baking. It's not full of water.

Is the vanilla just for flavoring? yes. If so, can I just change it for another extract, like anise or lemon?

The vanilla is for flavoring. Anise is really strong, so be careful if you substitute it. Almond might be good...

And is cooking like chemistry where you can make half the amount of something by halving all the ingredients by weight? Since all the ingredients are listed in volume, can I just cut the volume in half (1 cup becomes 1/2 cup, 1 tsp becomes 1/2 tsp?)?

Yes, if you half one thing, you'll have to half the entire recipe.

I'm interested to know if this turned out in cupcake tins. I think you might end up breaking your teeth trying to eat it, as that would be some VERY thick peanut brittle. If you don't own cookie sheets or a pie tin, try greasing some aluminum foil and laying it on a heat proof surface, like a big cutting board. You'll find that you really don't want it to be very thick.

I hope that helps!

Suzanne said...

I've never made peanut brittle, but your amazing tutorial has given me the courage to try! I love the idea of putting it into two pie plates and gifting it like that -- so cute!