Dion’s Peanut Brittle

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Christmas can sometimes sneak up on you before you know it.  That is just about what happened to us this year.  As most of you know I bake Rum Cakes for a local Rum Distributor here in Ft. Lauderdale each Christmas.  This year was no exception.  I actually baked over 200 this year with their order, online orders and family & friends.  Fortunately I got most of them done by the second weekend in December.  With all this going on I had not even began decorating the house for Christmas.  But this was all about to change when I got an amazing phone call from Dion.  She is the daughter of Trina whom I did my first cookbook with.

To our amazement she asked what we were doing for Christmas and then surprised us with the idea of joining us here in South Florida.  What an amazing Christmas present for us.  I have been trying to get her down here for years.   She has never been to south Florida and this would be a special trip for both of us.  Obviously Michael and I went straight to work in decorating the house and preparing for her arrival.  So now we are fully decorated and ready for her arrival.

She arrived last week just 4 days before Christmas.  Now we had so much to do.  Obviously showing here all around Ft. Lauderdale, Miami and Miami Beach.   Places she said she always dreamed of seeing and now I was able to share them with her.  Of course we couldn’t just site see.  We also had baking and cooking to do.

The first thing we made was her Peanut Brittle.  I have made it years ago with my mom and grandma Jean but honestly had not made it since my childhood.  I am sure I was just a bit of a bystander back then and mostly got in the way.  Dion said that this is a recipe that Paula Deen (her cousin) put in one of her cookbooks with a few changes.  But we are going to do it following her recipe this time.  When looking at the recipe I didn’t think it was going to turn out at first.  I had never made candy without using a candy thermometer.  There was no need for it she said.

It turned out we indeed did not need one.  She usually uses an electric skillet to make the candy.  Well I thought maybe we could use the Multi-Cooker I got from her cousin.  So combining her recipe and my method of cooking it, we made some of the best peanut brittle I’ve ever had.  Not only was it a beautiful golden color but it was just as crisp and “brittle” as any my mom or grandma Jean had made (sorry lady’s).

So with a few simple ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen and an electric skillet or the Paula Deen Multi-Cooker, you too can make this delicious candy.  Give it a try and let us know what you think.  Dion my have just helped you save precious time around the holidays making candy.

So here we go……

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup white corn syrup
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 3/4 cups raw peanuts
• 2 tablespoons butter
• pinch of salt

*Caution.  This candy is going to be molten hot as it cooks and when you pour it out and spread it.  Please be careful.

1. Preheat your multi-cooker on stove top high. (alternately heat electric skillet to 350°F)
2. Add the sugar, peanuts and salt in medium size bowl and mix together
3. Add mixture to multi cooker along with the corn syrup and water.  Mix well and begin your non stop stirring.
4. Bring mixture to a boil and continuously stir with a wooden spoon. Don’t use a spatula.  We may or may not have melted one on our first batch. LOL…   Once it begins to boil, cook for 10 minutes.
5. After 1o minutes your mixture should be golden in color.  If not, continue to cook a few more minutes until it is.
6. Now add the butter and stir to combine.
7. Add the baking soda.  It will foam up a bit.  Stir well to mix.
8. Pour immediately on a cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil and sprayed with cooking spray.  Move the cooker back and forth while pouring to spread the candy out as evenly as possible.
9. Using a wooden spoon, spread it out as thinly as possible.
10. Let cool and then break into pieces to serve.