Chocolate Peanut Brittle

Please allow me to introduce you to Mister Peanut Brittle.

We became friends this weekend and it was love at first sight (or taste).

This recipe came from the American Gourmet magazine (December 2007) which featured a candy section. I thought it would be way too hard for little ol’ me, and put it aside. 3 months on, I came across it as I was cleaning out my drawer and thought ‘oh ye, I could do that, just need a candy thermometer’. I found a candy thermometer at House for $8 bought some peanuts and began.

What a wonderful process! I felt like I was in some sort of candy chemistry laboratory, watching the temperature rise as the butter and sugar boiled and bubbled away for 20 minutes and turned into thick glossy goodness. Once that was done, there wasn’t too much to it, stir in the nuts, spread it out, sprinkle with chocolate, sprinkle with more nuts, chill and then came the joyous sound of cracking it into pieces, taking some pics, packaging it to give away and sitting down with a cup of coffee and munching away on the hard candy around the salty crunchy nuts with the gooey chocolate on top. It is pure perfection. I love it, and so did everyone who gobbled it up as soon as they received it! I am definitely look forward to more time with my candy thermometer.

450g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 cups sugar
4 cups whole salted & roasted peanuts
1 cup chopped peanuts
225g dark chocolate, finely chopped

Butter baking pan, line with baking paper and put on a heat proof surface.

Bring butter, sugar and salt to a boil in a large heavy pot over medium heat, whisking until smooth, then boil, stirring occasionally until the mixture is deep golden and registers 300F on a candy thermometer (15 – 20 minutes)

Immediately stir in whole peanuts and then carefully pour hot toffee into centre of baking pan. Spread with spatula, smoothing the top. Let stand for 1 minute.

Then immediately sprinkle the chocolate on top and allow to stand for the chocolate to melt (2 – 4 minutes) then spread over toffee with cleaned spatula.

Sprinkle over the chopped peanuts, then freeze until chocolate is firm (about 30 minutes).

Break into pieces and watch it disappear!



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