This Peanut Brittle Recipe Is an Ode to My Grandma (2024)

FAQs

What is the story behind peanut brittle? ›

The general origin story of peanut brittle is that it came from the South, and that a Southern woman in the second half of the 19th century came up with peanut brittle by accidentally putting baking soda into her taffy instead of cream of tartar.

Noun. peanut brittle (countable and uncountable, plural peanut brittles) A type of brittle (confection) containing peanuts in a hard toffee.

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. The sugar needs to be cooked to what is called the hard crack stage, 300ºF.

In parts of the Middle East, brittle is made with pistachios, while many Asian countries use sesame seeds and peanuts. “Brittle,” a flat hardened sugar candy, is thought to be one of the first candies ever made. Peanut brittle made with corn syrups and nuts began appearing in cookbooks around the 19th century.

Gramma Nutt is a character in the Candy Land Universe and a major figure of the Candy Land board game series. Her associated location is the Peanut Brittle House. In her original appearance, Gramma Nutt is described as "ever-hopeful" and lives in her Peanut Brittle House.

Peanut brittle is the most popular brittle recipe in the United States. The term "brittle" in the context of the food first appeared in print in 1892, though the candy itself has been around for much longer.

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.

Baking soda is also very important at this stage since it reacts to the heat, creating carbon dioxide that aerates the caramel, enabling it to snap when someone bites into it rather than requiring them to gnaw at it until it breaks or pulls apart.

While numerous cultures have been whipping up nut and syrup creations for centuries, it's very likely that the peanut brittle we know and love is American in origin.

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.

Why is my peanut brittle bitter? ›

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

What's important to know is that the corn syrup controls the grain of the brittle so adding too little and you have a grainy textured brittle, while adding too much will result in a stringy and sticky brittle.

If you opt for salted butter, you can skip this ingredient. Peanuts: Of course, you'll need peanuts for this classic treat! Butter: Unsalted butter adds richness to decadent peanut brittle. Baking soda: A teaspoon of baking soda creates air bubbles and makes a pleasantly "brittle" texture.

Another version places the woman in New England, and yet another traces it back to the Celts who mixed sugar with peanut butter and roasted it as a holiday treat. This tale has the Irish bringing the recipe to America circa 1830.

The most common, and perhaps one of the more believable versions is that a woman in the south was setting out to make a batch of taffy. Following a recipe, the next step was to add cream of tartar, but she grabbed the baking soda by accident instead!

Carver studied several plants, but perhaps is most well-known for his work with peanuts. Carver discovered over 300 uses of peanuts, with such versatility as shaving cream, shampoo, wood stains, and plastics.

Dr. George Washington Carver's work resulted in the creation of more than 300 products from peanuts, contributing greatly to the economic improvement of the rural South. Below is a list of some of his peanut products.

Legend tells us that around the year 1890, a Southern woman created peanut brittle by mistake. Apparently she was making taffy when she added baking soda instead of cream of tartar. However, not wanting to waste the ingredients, she continued cooking it, resulting in a crunchy brittle instead of a chewy taffy.

But it was the lowly peanut which made Carver famous. The peanut attracted his attention because it is easy to cultivate, it enriches the soil, and it is a ready source of protein, an especially important consideration since poor Black farmers could not afford meat.