Nut brittles

"Scott" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I've made a whole bunch of these--peanut, spicy peanut
(with cayenne pepper), peanut/sesame, mixed nut, almond,
chocolate-covered almond, black walnut, macadamia, and
least one or two more that I'm forgetting offhand. I just
picked up some pumpkin seeds, to see how they turn out as
brittle.

Any know of some interesting recipe variants?

TOFFEE BUTTER CRUNCH CANDY 1 c. butter 1 c. sugar 1 tbsp.
light corn syrup 1 tbsp. cold water 1 c. coarsely chopped
pecans 1 lg. Hershey bar

Melt butter in sauce pan. Add sugar, corn syrup and cold
water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Cook over medium
heat stirring occasionally. Cook until 300 degrees. At
about 275 degrees add chopped pecans. Pour onto buttered
pan (13 x 9 inches) and let stand for a few minutes. Break
Hershey bar into pieces and lay on toffee. Allow to melt
and spread over top. Sprinkle with finely chopped pecans.
When cold break into pieces. Store in tin container with
wax paper for layers.

Dimitri

Scott said:

I've made a whole bunch of these--peanut, spicy peanut
(with cayenne pepper), peanut/sesame, mixed nut, almond,
chocolate-covered almond, black walnut, macadamia, and
least one or two more that I'm forgetting offhand. I just
picked up some pumpkin seeds, to see how they turn out as
brittle.

Any know of some interesting recipe variants?

I've had pine nut brittles, cashew brittles and pistachio
brittles from Middle Eastern sweet shops. No fat is used,
just the sugar.

Scott said:

I've made a whole bunch of these--peanut, spicy peanut
(with cayenne pepper), peanut/sesame, mixed nut, almond,
chocolate-covered almond, black walnut, macadamia, and
least one or two more that I'm forgetting offhand. I just
picked up some pumpkin seeds, to see how they turn out as
brittle.

Any know of some interesting recipe variants?

If we don't know your recipe, how could we know what
constitutes a variant? We're not all Sylvia Brown.

You _are_ using a small amount of baking soda, right?

In article <[email hidden]>,

Mark Thorson said:

If we don't know your recipe, how could we know what
constitutes a variant? We're not all Sylvia Brown.

I wasn't looking for variants on a particular recipe
(especially since I use a number of different recipes), but
on brittles in general. Different nuts/seeds, sure, but even
more so, something that's not so obvious.

Quoted message said:

You _are_ using a small amount of baking soda, right?

Often, but not always--it depends upon what I'm shooting
for. E.g., the chocolate covered almond brittle comes out
much better w/o any baking soda.

Chocolate covered almond brittle 1-1/2 cups finely chopped
almonds 1-1/4 cup butter 2-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water 6 oz. chocolate bits or 2 to 3 milk
chocolate bars

Measure the butter and sugar and put in a heavy 2 or 3 quart
pan then add the water. Place over low heat, stirring
constantly until sugar dissolves. When it boils, add one cup
chopped almonds. Boil until it reads 290 degrees on a candy
thermometer (hard crack stage). Butter a flat pan, pour in
candy and spread. Scatter chocolate over the top. As it
melts, spread it to cover. Sprinkle the remaining nuts over
the top. When cool, break candy into bite sized pieces.

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In article <[email hidden]>,

Dimitri said:

TOFFEE BUTTER CRUNCH CANDY 1 c. butter 1 c. sugar 1 tbsp.
light corn syrup 1 tbsp. cold water 1 c. coarsely chopped
pecans 1 lg. Hershey bar

Melt butter in sauce pan. Add sugar, corn syrup and cold
water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Cook over medium
heat stirring occasionally. Cook until 300 degrees. At
about 275 degrees add chopped pecans. Pour onto buttered
pan (13 x 9 inches) and let stand for a few minutes.
Break Hershey bar into pieces and lay on toffee. Allow
to melt and spread over top. Sprinkle with finely
chopped pecans. When cold break into pieces. Store in
tin container with wax paper for layers.

Hey, that looked very good! Thanks.

Yes, it's more of a toffee than a brittle, but I should have
mentioned that would be within the specs I'm looking for.

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In article <[email hidden]>, Arri London <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I've had pine nut brittles, cashew brittles and pistachio
brittles from Middle Eastern sweet shops. No fat is used,
just the sugar

Do you know how they were made? They sound wonderful.

Regards, Ranee

--
Remove do not and spam to e-mail me.

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord
of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man."
Acts 17:24

In article <[email hidden]>,

Scott said:

I've made a whole bunch of these--peanut, spicy peanut
(with cayenne pepper), peanut/sesame, mixed nut, almond,
chocolate-covered almond, black walnut, macadamia, and
least one or two more that I'm forgetting offhand. I just
picked up some pumpkin seeds, to see how they turn out as
brittle.

Any know of some interesting recipe variants?

I often make cashew brittle using my peanut brittle recipe
and subbing raw cashews for the peanuts. Yum.
--
-Barb, <www.jamlady.eboard.com> updated 3-29-04.

"Scott" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I've made a whole bunch of these--peanut, spicy peanut
(with cayenne pepper), peanut/sesame, mixed nut, almond,
chocolate-covered almond, black walnut, macadamia, and
least one or two more that I'm forgetting offhand. I just
picked up some pumpkin seeds, to see how they turn out as
brittle.

Any know of some interesting recipe variants?

MOLASSES WALNUT BRITTLE

½ cup (120 ml) hot water ¼ cup (80 ml) molasses
1/4 cup (60ml) light corn syrup 1 ½ cups (360ml or 300g)
granulated 1 ½ cups (360ml or 150g) walnuts, 1 tablespoon
(15ml) butter
2/4 teaspoon (1.2ml) salt
3/2 teaspoon (2.5ml) baking soda 1 teaspoon (5ml)
vanilla extract

Before you begin, butter a marble slab or a heavy 12" x 18"
(30.5cm x 45.7cm) cookie sheet. Chop and measure the nuts.

4. Combine water, molasses, corn syrup and sugar in a
heavy four-quart (four-liter) saucepan. Set over medium
heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until all
sugar crystals are dissolved. Wash down sides of pan
with pastry brush dipped in hot water. Clip on
thermometer. Continue cooking, without stirring, to
268°F (130°C), about 20 minutes. Wash down sides of pan
again during this period. Gradually stir in walnuts,
then butter and salt. Continue cooking, stirring
constantly to 300°F (149 °C), about eight minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla until thor-
oughly mixed. Candy will foam.

5. Pour onto prepared slab or cookie sheet and press with
spoon to flatten. When candy has slightly cooled, about
five minutes, loosen from slab with a spatula. Put on
heavy gloves and grasp candy by edges to stretch and
thin. Score with a sharp knife into 1 ¼ inch
(6.2cm) squares. Allow to cool completely, about 30 minutes,
then break into pieces. Store in a tightly sealed plastic
bag for up to a month. Yield: about 60 pieces.

"Scott" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I've made a whole bunch of these--peanut, spicy peanut
(with cayenne pepper), peanut/sesame, mixed nut, almond,
chocolate-covered almond, black walnut, macadamia, and
least one or two more that I'm forgetting offhand. I just
picked up some pumpkin seeds, to see how they turn out as
brittle.

Any know of some interesting recipe variants?

PUFFED RICE BRITTLE

If you like brittle, you'll love this candy! It has a
glossy dark russet color, a deep caramel-like flavor and a
crunchy crisp tex- ture. The cereal is added when the candy
has already cooked to a high temperature. so it has a
roasted flavor like crisp nuts. This is an economy
candy—but it doesn't taste like one! Be sure to use a four-
quart four-liter) heavy pan to cook this candy. It foams up
as it heats.

1 cup (240ml) water 1 cup (240ml or 200g) granulated sugar
1 cup (240ml or 170g) light brown sugar, lightly packed l
1/2 cups (360ml) dark corn syrup 1 cup (240ml or 150g)
roasted Spanish peanuts 2 cups (480ml or 56g) puffed rice 1
teaspoon (5ml) butter 1 teaspoon (5ml) salt 1 teaspoon
(5ml) baking soda

Before you begin, put nuts and cereal in a sheet cake pan
and place in oven set at lowest temperature to warm. Butter
a marble slab or butter a 12" x 18" (30.5cm x 45.7cm)
cookie sheet.

1. Combine water, granulated and brown sugars and corn syrup
in a four-quart (four- liter) heavy pan. Place over low
heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until all
sugar crystals are dissolved. Wash down sides of pan with
a pastry brush dipped in hot water. Clip on thermometer.
2. Continue cooking, washing down sides of pan with a wet
pastry brush three or four more times. Do not stir. When
tempera- ture reaches 270°F (132 °C) reduce heat to
low—it will rise quickly from this point. At 290°F (143
°C) add butter, puffed rice and peanuts. Cook two minutes
longer at low heat.
3. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and salt. Pour
onto prepared marble slab or cookie sheets. Do not scrape
pan. While candy is still warm, score into 1 1/4" (3.2cm)
squares with a sharp knife. Cool completely, about 30
minutes, then break into pieces. Store at room
temperature in a tightly closed Plastic Bag for weeks.
This candy keeps very well – its ideal to send as a gift.
Yield: about 80 pieces.

Mark Thorson said:

Scott said:

I've made a whole bunch of these--peanut, spicy peanut
(with cayenne pepper), peanut/sesame, mixed nut, almond,
chocolate-covered almond, black walnut, macadamia, and
least one or two more that I'm forgetting offhand. I
just picked up some pumpkin seeds, to see how they turn
out as brittle.

Any know of some interesting recipe variants?

If we don't know your recipe, how could we know what
constitutes a variant? We're not all Sylvia Brown.

You _are_ using a small amount of baking soda, right?

What is the baking soda for? I've never used it in any nut
brittle. They come out crisp and tasty.

Ranee Mueller said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Arri London

Quoted message said:

I've had pine nut brittles, cashew brittles and
pistachio brittles from Middle Eastern sweet shops. No
fat is used, just the sugar

Do you know how they were made? They sound wonderful.

Regards, Ranee

--

Haven't seen them made. My best guess is that sugar/water is
cooked to the hard-crack stage and the roasted nuts are
added. The pans were always deeper than the thin American
brittles and there was no obvious caramel/tan colour to the
mix. Just clear glistening sugar! Not very easy to eat
though LOL! Had to nibble carefully because of the thickness
of the pieces.

Arri London said:

What is the baking soda for? I've never used it in any nut
brittle. They come out crisp and tasty.

They form microscopic bubbles of carbon dioxide, which have
three important effects:

* Whitener -- the matrix enclosing the nuts becomes more
opaque and reflective.

* Increases volume -- by foaming the matrix, a larger
volume results, which reduces cost. (Very critical due
to sugar price controls which double the price of sugar
in the U.S.)

* Texture modifier -- by stopping the propagation of cracks,
the bubbles change the mouth feel, making it more crunchy
and less glassy.

* Deacidifier -- the strongly acidifying effect of sucrose
on the blood and other bodily fluids is counteracted by
neutralization. This eliminates the principle health
objection to white sugar.

Hope this helps. :-)

In article <[email hidden]>,

Mark Thorson said:

* Increases volume -- by foaming the matrix, a larger
volume results, which reduces cost. (Very critical due
to sugar price controls which double the price of sugar
in the U.S.)

* Texture modifier -- by stopping the propagation of
cracks, the bubbles change the mouth feel, making it
more crunchy and less glassy.

... which also makes it easier to bite into.

--
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please mail OT responses only

Mark Thorson said:

Arri London said:

What is the baking soda for? I've never used it in any
nut brittle. They come out crisp and tasty.

They form microscopic bubbles of carbon dioxide, which
have three important effects:

* Whitener -- the matrix enclosing the nuts becomes more
opaque and reflective.

Wouldn't want that in any case.

Quoted message said:

* Increases volume -- by foaming the matrix, a larger
volume results, which reduces cost. (Very critical due
to sugar price controls which double the price of sugar
in the U.S.)

Why do that at home? Are you certain about sugar price
controls doubling the price of sugar? It's horrendously
cheap as it is. Surely growers must be allowed some sort
of profit?

Quoted message said:

* Texture modifier -- by stopping the propagation of
cracks, the bubbles change the mouth feel, making it
more crunchy and less glassy.

Wouldn't like that either.

Quoted message said:

* Deacidifier -- the strongly acidifying effect of sucrose
on the blood and other bodily fluids is counteracted by
neutralization. This eliminates the principle health
objection to white sugar.

That sounds like nonsense. The acids that are formed in
the mouth after eating sucrose are due to bacterial
metabolism. There isn't enough baking soda in brittle to
counteract that.

Quoted message said:

Hope this helps. :-)

Arri London said:

Mark Thorson said:

* Increases volume -- by foaming the matrix, a larger
volume results, which reduces cost. (Very critical due
to sugar price controls which double the price of
sugar in the U.S.)

Why do that at home? Are you certain about sugar price
controls doubling the price of sugar? It's horrendously
cheap as it is. Surely growers must be allowed some sort
of profit?

Because of corrupt politicians and the influence of special
interests, sugar price supports raise the price of sugar in
the U.S. to more than double the world price. I think this
is one of the worst examples of a few companies manipulating
government policy for their own profit -- at the expense of
everybody else.

Here's a web site put up by the victims of the sugar racket:

sugar-reform.orgsugar-reform.orgOpen ↗

We're losing our candy industry to Canada because of this:

csmonitor.comp01s02 usec.htmOpen ↗ commondreams.org0320Open ↗
02.htm

Mark Thorson said:

Arri London said:

Mark Thorson said:

* Increases volume -- by foaming the matrix, a larger
volume results, which reduces cost. (Very critical
due to sugar price controls which double the price
of sugar in the U.S.)

Why do that at home? Are you certain about sugar price
controls doubling the price of sugar? It's horrendously
cheap as it is. Surely growers must be allowed some sort
of profit?

Because of corrupt politicians and the influence of
special interests, sugar price supports raise the price of
sugar in the U.S. to more than double the world price. I
think this is one of the worst examples of a few companies
manipulating government policy for their own profit -- at
the expense of everybody else.

But sugar in the US is so very much cheaper than in the
other countries in which I've lived. Doesn't seem to make
sense really.

Quoted message said:

Here's a web site put up by the victims of the sugar
racket:

sugar-reform.orgsugar-reform.orgOpen ↗

We're losing our candy industry to Canada because of this:

csmonitor.comp01s02 usec.htmOpen ↗
commondreams.org0320 02.htmOpen ↗

Arri London said:

But sugar in the US is so very much cheaper than in the
other countries in which I've lived. Doesn't seem to make
sense really.

Are you comparing retail prices? The U.S. has more
competitive food distribution networks than other countries.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Here's a web site put up by the victims of the sugar
racket:

sugar-reform.orgsugar-reform.orgOpen ↗

That link seems to be defunct, now. I wonder what
happened to them.

Quoting from this article: csmonitor.comp01s02Open ↗
usec.htm

"Here in the US, consumers – including candymakers – pay at
least twice the world-market price. That's why America's soft-
drink makers long ago shifted from sugar to corn syrup to
sweeten their beverages. Candymakers usually can't make that
change, especially in high-sugar-content hard candy."

Quoting from this article: commondreams.org0320Open ↗
02.htm

"Kraft Foods Inc. is closing the plant and moving its
operations to Canada, where sugar is half the price and its
work force will be nonunion. The move will wipe out 600
union jobs that pay an average of $15.50 an hour."

Mark Thorson said:

Arri London said:

But sugar in the US is so very much cheaper than in the
other countries in which I've lived. Doesn't seem to
make sense really.

Are you comparing retail prices? The U.S. has more
competitive food distribution networks than other
countries.

It may and it may not. But retail prices reflect wholesale
prices normally.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Here's a web site put up by the victims of the sugar
racket:

sugar-reform.orgsugar-reform.orgOpen ↗

That link seems to be defunct, now. I wonder what happened
to them.

Quoting from this article: csmonitor.comp01s02Open ↗
usec.htm

"Here in the US, consumers – including candymakers – pay
at least twice the world-market price. That's why
America's soft-drink makers long ago shifted from sugar to
corn syrup to sweeten their beverages. Candymakers usually
can't make that change, especially in high-sugar-content
hard candy."

Quoting from this article: commondreams.org0320Open ↗
02.htm

"Kraft Foods Inc. is closing the plant and moving its
operations to Canada, where sugar is half the price and
its work force will be nonunion. The move will wipe out
600 union jobs that pay an average of $15.50 an hour."

US sugar may be more expensive than Canadian sugar, but it
isn't more expensive than sugar in other countries.