sugar and nuts are fun
Peanut Brittle
Brittle is a type of confection consisting of flat broken pieces of hard sugar candy embedded with nuts such as pecans, almonds or peanuts. It has many variations around the world, such as pasteli in Greece, croquant in France, gozinaki in Georgia, chikki in India and kotkoti in Bangladesh. In parts of the Middle East, brittle is made with pistachios,while many Asian countries use sesame seeds and peanuts. Peanut brittle is the most popular brittle recipe in the US. The term brittle first appears in print in 1892, though the candy itself has been around for much longer.
Traditionally, a mixture of sugar and water is heated to the hard crack stage corresponding to a temperature of approximately 149 °C, although some recipes also call for ingredients such as corn syrup and salt in the first step. Nuts are mixed with the caramelized sugar. At this point spices, leavening agents, and often peanut butter or butter are added. The hot candy is poured out onto a flat surface for cooling, traditionally a granite or marble slab. The hot candy may be troweled to uniform thickness. When the brittle cools, it is broken into pieces.
Tanis Confectionery has equipment to manufacture this automatically; the weigher for preparing a premix and the cookers for cooking this premix and mix this with the nuts. After that the mass can be cooled on a stainless steel cooling belt and then sliced and cut in the size that is wanted. The brittle can also be enrobed.
