Peanut Brittle
on Dec 05, 2022, Updated Jun 28, 2024
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Everyone needs a good old fashioned Peanut Brittle recipe and this one is my go-to. This candy is perfect for the holiday season but can really be enjoyed all throughout the year.
Peanut brittle makes a great gift to package up and bring to friends, neighbors, teachers or co-workers. Find a cute tin or jar, wrap a beautiful bow around it and you are set.
Peanut Brittle
Peanut brittle is a candy that is flat, smooth and filled with peanuts. It is first cooked on the stovetop and then carefully poured onto a sheet pan to cool. After the peanut brittle is completely cooled, simply break the brittle into smaller sized pieces and enjoy.
The thing I love about peanut brittle, besides the taste, is that it is one of the easier candy recipes to make. If you have a candy thermometer you will be in business. I wouldn’t recommend children helping with this recipe due to the very hot sugar mixture.
Ingredients
- Sugar
- Light corn syrup
- Salted roasted peanuts
- Butter
- Baking Soda
- Vanilla
Recipe Instructions
- Grease your cookie sheets and set them aside.
- Cook your sugar, water, and corn syrup together until they reach 240 degrees F. and then add your butter and peanuts.
- Keep cooking until the candy reaches 300 degrees F.
- Add your baking soda and vanilla (it’ll bubble up!) and then pour the candy onto the prepared sheets.
- Cool and then break into pieces and enjoy.
- Full recipe with measurements and instructions follows (keep scrolling).
Frequently Asked Questions
A candy thermometer is essential in making peanut brittle. You don’t want your brittle to be too soft or too hard. A thermometer will remove the guessing game and get you to the perfect peanut brittle.
Peanut Brittle is best stored at room temperature in an airtight container. It can last up to 6 weeks!
Adding baking soda adds the perfect crunch to peanut brittle because it creates tiny air pockets. I heard that peanut brittle was first invented after a woman accidentally put baking soda in instead of cream of tartar in when making taffy. A crunchy hard candy was her result!
You will want to use your candy thermometer and wait until the temperature reaches 300 degrees but it will most likely take about 20 minutes for peanut brittle to get hard.
More Recipes
- Divinity Candy
- Candy Cane Meringue Cookies
- Peppermint Bark Chocolate Covered Pretzels
- Homemade Peppermint Bark
If you’ve tried this Peanut Brittle recipe or any other recipe on Bless this Mess, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some pictures of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories.
Peanut Brittle
Ingredients
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 pound shelled unroasted peanuts
Instructions
- Heat oven to 300 degrees F. and then turn off (this is just to get it warm).
- Butter 2 rimmed cookie sheets well and place them in warm oven.
- Mix baking soda, 1 teaspoon water and vanilla together in a small bowl and set aside.
- Mix sugar, 1 cup water and the corn syrup in 3 qt. saucepan.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until you reach 240 degrees F. on candy thermometer
- Stir in butter and peanuts.
- Continue cooking until you reach 300 degrees F. on candy thermometer while stirring constantly.
- Immediately remove from heat and stir in baking soda mixture.
- Remove cookie sheets from oven and pour half the candy mixture onto each sheet.
- Quickly spread with the back of spoon to about ¼ inch thick.
- Cool completely.
- Break into pieces and enjoy!
Notes
- Sometimes the raw peanuts are called Spanish peanuts and can found in the baking aisle by other nuts and the chocolate chips.
- I have used roasted salted peanut butter for and liked it a lot, it gave it a sweet and salty taste.
- Be careful about spreading the candy out once it has cooled, sometimes I’ll tilt the pan a little or sometimes I just let it spread out to however thick it’s going to be. If you mess with it too much it changes the texture so don’t be too aggressive in your spreading and do it right away, not once it’s started to cool.
- After years of dealing with candy thermometers and ruining candy I bought a nice thermometer with an alarm (you can set it to beep at you at certain temperatures) and it was worth every penny. I got this digital thermometer for candy making (not an affiliate link) and we love it (great for making caramel too which takes a long time to cook). Highly recommend if you make candy.
Nutrition
Peanut Brittle is a hard candy that you will make over and over again. It is straight forward, easy to whip up and makes the perfect holiday gift for friends.
