Classic Peanut Brittle
Instructions
Tip: Before beginning this recipe, go ahead and measure out all of the ingredients and have them at hand. Also have your cookie sheets buttered and ready to use. Once you remove the candy from the heat, you have a limited time to work with it before it begins to harden. By having everything ready ahead of time, youll be able to proceed through the recipe without delay at any of the time sensitive steps.
Combine sugar, corn syrup and water in the saucepan.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture reaches the hardball stage or 250 degrees on a candy thermometer.
Tip: For best results, use a candy thermometer AND test for the hardball stage. Test for the hardball stage as follows: Spoon just a bit of the sugar syrup mixture into cold water. Form it into a ball with your fingers. If the ball is hard, but you can still flatten it somewhat by squeezing the ball between your fingers, its reached the hardball stage. If the syrup forms a ball that you can easily squeeze flat between your fingers, it needs to cook a bit longer.
Tip: For an easy, accurate, mess-free way to check the temperature, you might want to look into this amazing non-contact infrared thermometer. What will they think of next!
Add the butter and peanuts, and continue cooking until the syrup reaches the hard crack stage or 295 degrees. The syrup should be a light golden brown color at that point.
Tip: The syrup has reached the hard crack stage when it forms hard but brittle threads that break when you try to bend them. The syrup is very hot at this stage, so when you dribble a bit of the syrup into the cold water to test it, give it a few seconds to cool before touching it with your fingers.
Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
Add the soda and stir until the mixture begins to foam.
Acting quickly, pour half of the candy on 1 buttered cookie sheet, and the remainder on the other buttered cookie sheet.
Spread and thin the candy on the cookie sheets by using a pair of forks to gently pull it into a thin layer covering most of the cookie sheet. This will result in thin pieces of brittle with a nice, delicate crunch rather than thick, hard to chew pieces.
Allow to cool, and then break into serving-sized pieces.
