Mom's Best Peanut Brittle Recipe - Real Life Dinner (2024)

FAQs

Why put baking soda in peanut brittle? ›

Baking soda is a key ingredient in peanut brittle. It's what aerates the candy, giving it a nice light crunch. 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.

This is because you did not cook it long enough in the microwave. If the texture of the peanut brittle is sticky, and not crunchy, this means that you need to cook the mixture longer, until it reaches 300°F.

To store: Once it's completely cooled, store peanut brittle in an airtight container at room temperature. Do not refrigerate as the moisture from the fridge will cause the brittle to soften. Store for 6-8 weeks. To Freeze: Peanut brittle can be frozen and stored up to 3 months.

Why did my peanut brittle turn out chewy? The likely cause is that the sugar mixture didn't reach the proper hard crack stage temperature. Ensuring it reaches 300˚F is key to getting that classic brittle texture.

Those other liquid sugars have impurities that will burn at the higher temperature of making caramel, leading to a bitter-tasting brittle.

Baking soda and baking powder are not the same. Sodium bicarbonate and bicarbonate of soda are other names for baking soda. Baking powder is made of baking soda plus cream of tartar and cornstarch. Baking powder can be substituted for baking soda by tripling the amount of baking powder.

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.

If your peanut brittle reached 311°F but is a pale milky color, it's likely the candy cooked too quickly. It reached the correct temperature but didn't cook long enough to undergo sufficient Maillard reactions and develop the characteristic brown color and rich, roasted flavor.

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.

Your two biggest spoilage factors for peanut brittle would be moisture and rancidity. The cooked sugar that forms the brittle would suffer from moisture, which it would absorb directly from the atmosphere, causing it to become sticky and soft.

Can I freeze homemade peanut brittle? ›

Can You Freeze Peanut Brittle? Yes! You can freeze peanut brittle for up to three months, but it will slightly alter the texture.

Remember human peanut brittle is not safe for dog consumption, so make your pup their own to enjoy!

I've learned that brittle is better when made on a cool, dry day. When I've made the candy on a warmer, humid day, it tends to be a stickier brittle. This is because the brittle takes longer to cool, and it reaches a point where it is no longer evaporating moisture into the air.

If the brittle does not reach a hard crack stage (300F degrees) it will not set up and harden properly. Also, the correct pan size matters. If your pan is too small then the brittle mixture will be too thick and won't be able to harden up properly. If you like it to have a more salty flavor, you can use salted peanuts.

Baking soda helps to aerate brittle — it literally makes the molten candy bubble in the pot — to create a brittle with an airy, almost honeycomblike texture that crunches easily when eaten.

Examples of interfering agents include corn syrup and cream of tartar. A key step in making brittle is heating the syrup to the proper temperature. Typically, this is the hard crack stage or 300° to 310°F.

The candy syrup is slightly acidic. When baking soda is added, it reacts with the acid and releases bubbles of carbon dioxide. This makes the syrup foam and expand so the finished candy is not so hard and dense.