This is my great grandma’s recipe that she was known for. People looked forward to getting a tin of her peanut brittle around Christmas each year. She taught me how to make it before passing away. No one else in the family really made it well and there are a few little tricks that make this recipe a success. It’s easy to under or over cook peanut brittle. Undercooked is chewy. Overcooked taste like burnt peanuts.
Do yourself a favor and measure out your ingredients ahead of time. Once you’re in the throes of stirring the sugary mix it’s hard to stop for measuring something out.
Once everything is measured out, grease your baking pan. I like to take a little butter and spread it around on the pan.
Over medium to medium high heat warm your pan and start with the corn syrup. Then add the sugar and salt. Once that’s boiling stir in the peanuts. Now it’s time to just stir and be patient while the peanuts cook. It’s easy to get impatient and have an undercooked batch. The mix will start to turn a little yellow and you’ll smell a roasted nuttiness, that’s when it’s time to add in the baking soda. You can sprinkle it in a little at a time. Once it’s in you can turn off the heat and get it mixed in well then pour onto the baking pan.
Ok, the best time to make this recipe is when there’s snow or ice outside and you can place the pan out in the freezing snow to cool. That’s not always your conditions so you can also place the batch in a freezer. Remove it once you don’t feel any more warmth and then you can break it into pieces.
A couple other notes- The hot liquid can leave a nasty burn. It will stick to your skin so be very careful. The most effective way I’ve found to clean up is to dissolve the sugary mix off your pan and utensils with hot water.