Day 13 Of The Rosiethon. Rosie Makes Dixie Peanut Brittle.

 
Dixie Peanut Brittle is a favorite in the Hawthorne Household.

I hope it becomes one of yours, too.

Merry Christmas to my Readers!

Dixie Peanut Brittle

2 cups sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups raw shelled peanuts, skins on

2 TB unsalted butter

2 tsp baking soda

Heat sugar, syrup, water, and salt to a rolling boil.

Add peanuts.

Reduce heat and stir constantly

 until hard crack stage - 300°-310° .

Add in butter.

Then the baking soda.

Beat rapidly and be amazed at the transformation of the caramel!

That baking soda is something else.
The caramel gets all light and foamy.

This is where you need a Mr. Hawthorne to help you

and the two of you have to work very quickly.
It takes four hands.

Pour the mixture onto a buttered pan

and spread out evenly.

Let cool.

Break into pieces.

Day 13 Of The Rosiethon. Dixie Peanut Brittle

Rosie is making Dixie Peanut Brittle today.

You will need a candy thermometer for this.

I use a laser thermometer Mr. Hawthorne

bought for me for a birthday present

HAH!

When it comes to pouring the candy onto the buttered pan,

this is easier if you can enlist another pair of hands.

You need to be quick.

Dixie Peanut Brittle

2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups raw, shelled peanuts, skins on
2 TB butter
2 tsp baking soda

In a heavy saucepan, heat sugar, syrup, water, and salt to a rolling boil.
Add peanuts.
Reduce heat to medium and stir constantly.
Cook to hard crack stage (300-310 degrees).
Add butter, then baking soda.
When the soda goes in, the color of the mixture changes to much lighter and the mixture will foam a bit.  This is normal.
Beat rapidly and pour onto a buttered 10 x 14-inch baking sheet, spreading quickly to evenly cover the pan.  This part is easier if you have an extra set of hands to help.

In a heavy saucepan,

combine sugar, salt, ...

... water ...

... and corn syrup.

(I used a combination of light and dark corn syrups.

I only had 3/4 cup left of light syrup,

so I added 1/4 cup of dark.

Vanilla in.

Bring to a rolling boil.

Add in peanuts.

Reduce heat and stir constantly

until hard crack stage (300 - 310 degrees).

Add in butter and baking soda.

Quickly stir until light and foamy.

Pour into prepared pan.

Let cool,

then crack into pieces.

For previous posts:

Day 11 -  Praline Cookies

Day 8 at Outer Banks Voice -   Turtle Brownies

Day 9  -  Apricot Almond Biscotti 

Day 9  -  Mocha Toffee Cashew Bars

Day 12  Ultimate Sour Lemon Butter Bars

Day 12  Cranberry Orange Macaroons

The Rosiethon. Day 5 Of Rosie's Christmas Baking. #18. Dixie Peanut Brittle.

Rosie is still oven-less, so she's making Dixie Peanut Brittle.
 Awwww. I miss Dixie.

Beau is pinch-hitting for Dixie today.
He smells the caramel.
Dixie would have been in that exact same place.

The recipe calls for 3 cups shelled peanuts.
A one-pound bag of peanuts yields 2 cups shelled.

Dixie Peanut Brittle
2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
 3 cups raw shelled peanuts
 2 TB butter
2 tsp baking soda
 In a heavy saucepan, heat sugar, syrup,
water, and salt to a rolling boil.
Add peanuts.
Reduce heat to medium and stir constantly
 until mixture reaches hard crack stage.
 (300-310 degrees - about 10 minutes)
Add butter, then baking soda.
 Beat rapidly and immediately pour evenly
onto greased baking sheet.
When the baking soda goes in, the mixture turns very light and foamy.
You need to work fast and it helps to have a second set of hands
 to spread the mixture evenly.
When cool, break into pieces.

Bring sugar, water, corn syrup, and salt to a rolling boil.

Add in nuts.

Turn heat to medium, ...

... stirring constantly, until ...

... it reaches hard crack stage. 300 - 310 degrees Mr. Hawthorne gave me the laser thermometer for my birthday last year. It's quite a nifty little gadget and if you're the least bit antsy about frying, it would behoove you to get one of these. I can tell when oil is ready for frying by watching the rate of bubbles coming out of the end of a wooden spoon handle when submerged in the hot oil. If you're not comfortable with this method, then I recommend the laser thermometer. Plus, it's lots of fun to play with. You'll find yourself taking the temperature of all sorts of things.

Add in the butter,

... beating well.

Next, add in the baking soda and beat rapidly. Quickly, pour peanut foam onto buttered baking pan. Spread evenly. I set up my little camera on its miniature tripod to shoot the video: I said "soft crack" stage in the video. I meant "hard crack."

Day 11 Of Rosie's Christmas Baking.

OK. Listen up, people. This post has taken me freakin' HOURS. And I finally bypassed the crap obstacles that BLOGGER (To the uninitiated, BLOGGER is my vehicle of posting my innermost thought here.) puts in my way - as in time constraints of uploading videos. But I figured out how to get around this, and upload my lengthy video to "video/blogger," then provide a link for the upload on BLOGGER, AND IT WORKED. All the time, my 65 second video was aimlessly trying to upload on blogger. Those of you who just read my blog and don't have to do the intricacies of BLOGGING, won't know what I'm talking about. But those of you who ACTUALLY BLOG, e-me. I can edumacate you. I am so proud of myself for figuring out HOW TO DO THIS! I'm still patting myself on the back. Because BLOGGING is a lot of hard work. >WHINE< All right, enough of that. Back to cooking.

OK, lets get back to Day 11 of my Christmas Baking. First up is my Dixie Peanut Brittle.

My ingredients: 2 cups sugar 1 cup light corn syrup 1/2 cup water 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 cups raw, shelled peanuts, skins on 2 tablespoons butter 2 teaspoons baking soda

Pour the corn syrup into a heavy pan.

Add in the sugar.

Pour in the water.

Add in the salt. Bring the sugar, syrup, water, and salt to a rolling boil.

Add in the peanuts. Reduce heat to medium and stir constantly.

Bring to hard crack stage - 300 - 310 degrees. Then add in butter, melt, then add in baking soda. Beat rapidly and pour onto a butter surface, spreading to 1/4 inch thickness. And I hope I can do the video here: Peanut Brittle.

Thusly.

When cool, break into pieces.

Close ups look pretty good. Next, I'm making my Nut and Berry Bark, one of the all-time favorites among my recipients. I enlisted Mr. Hawthorne's help for shelling pistachios.

Poor Mr. Hawthorne. He complained after shelling 3 cups of pistachios that his nails were TOTALLY RUINED. Oh, by the by, that's my mise en place. I doubled my recipe. Think KARMA here and wait and see what happened. Anyways, the ingredients, doubled, were: 3 cups shelled pistachios 3 cups dried cranberries 2 1/2 pounds white bars, finely chopped (And there's no such thing as WHITE CHOCOLATE.)

First, I brought a steamer basket to a boil, then poured in the cranberries, covered, and steamed for about 4 minutes.

I transferred the cranberries to paper towels and blotted to dry.

Next, I poured the pistachios into a baking pan, and baked for 10 minutes, in a 350-degree oven. In the meantime, (And I don't know why I didn't photograph this.) I melted 2 1/2 pounds of white bars in a double boiler, over low heat.

After the white bars melted, I poured the molten mixture into a bowl, then added the toasted pistachios.

Then added in the steamed cranberries.

Poured the mixture onto two foil-lined pans.

And spread it all out.

And here I have a double recipe of my delicious Nut and Berry Bark. And HERE, I have WTF!!

I started my cleanup. I took the pan that had the pistachios to the sink. Then I noticed ... GLASS CHARDS ON THE PAN!!!!! WHA????? I never saw them on the pan when I first poured out the pistachios. So I go up into the cabinet and find the Pyrex measuring cup which Mr. Hawthorne put the shelled pistachios into.

OH, Just CRAP. The Pyrex cup is cracked and shattered on the rim. And the GLASS SHARDS ARE IN MY NUT & BERRY BARK!

Sadly, I roll up my two pans of nut and berry bark.

And toss them in the trash, along with the fractured measuring cup. I freakin' hate waste. But I also hate killing people with my food. I'll go out tomorrow, buy more white chocolate, and Thank You, Sister Hawthorne, for the Pistachios you sent me for Christmas. They'll come in handy tomorrow, when I'll try to make another batch of Nut and Berry Bark that won't send people to the hospital with excruciating abdominal pains and possibly DEATH. Thank God, I found the shards. OMG, I just totally suck.