Best Peanut Brittle

The single most important thing:
You MUST assemble and pre-measure all your ingredients, utensils, and pans in advance

A little practice and the right tools and this will become your most requested holiday treat.

Tools:

2-quart sauce pan
1-candy thermometer
1-heavy duty spatula or bench scraper
1- large baking sheet 21"L x 15"W x 1"H 
1-wooden spoon, no metal, it interacts with the candy and obviously, no plastic (they will melt) 

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup water

1-1/2 cups cocktail peanuts

1 tablespoons butter, softened

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda 
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Butter a large baking sheet. Set aside.
2. Assemble all equipment and measure out all ingredients BEFORE you start cooking.
3. In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, over medium-high heat (on my stove that's an 8 on the dial), bring to a boil sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Set candy thermometer in place (clipped to the side of the pan with the bulb submerged, but not touching the bottom), and continue cooking without stirring until thermometer reaches 245 degrees.  
4. Stir in peanuts, turn the burner down to medium (6 on my stove dial) and stir constantly until temperature reaches 300 degrees F. Should be golden brown in color.
5. Remove from heat; immediately stir in butter, baking soda and vanilla; 
6. Beat quickly until it foams then immediately pour mixture on to cookie sheet in a sweeping motion from end to end. (do not let the candy all bunch in the middle, it is very hot and will continue to cook if not spread out properly)
7. Use the back of a wooden spoon to quickly spread the candy side to side to stop the cooking process.
8.  Let cool until you can begin to lift the candy around the edges with your spatula or bench scraper. 
9. Keep lifting the edges until you can lift and turn the whole sheet over, one time. 
10. Then begin to quickly pull the candy into a thin sheet. Continue pulling until you have the desired thickness; cool. 
11. Snap candy into pieces. Store in dry, airtight containers or baggies.  Do not seal the container until the candy has completely cooled, 2 or 3 hours. 

Creamy New Orleans style Pecan Pralines

A few months ago a co-worker, Dorian Sibert, made a trip to New Orleans and brought back, Pecan Pralines.  Now, I am certain I had these candies before in my life and I was in no hurry to collect my share of the sweet confection.  My past experience was of an oddly flavored rather sticky lump of goo.  However, as my co-workers began to, ooh and ahh, my curiosity got the best of me and I nabbed on to one of the creamy pieces.  This didn’t look like I remembered, one taste and oh, my, this, this is not at all what I recalled.  This was a creamy, crunchy, buttery, sweet bite of heaven.  Thus began my journey to recreate this confectionary delight.  After many failed attempts and more lumps of goo than is respectable, I managed to piece to gather enough bits of info from various sources to produce the candy that had captured my attention.  Don’t let anyone tell you these are made with shortening, water, or canned milk, they most definitely are not.  You need to prepare in advance and work fast but, it is worth it!

HERE’S A FEW TIPS BEFORE YOU GET STARTED!

• Make sure that you line your cookie sheet with parchment paper BEFORE you start the candy. 
• Make sure that the butter that you use is salted!
• Have a candy thermometer on hand.
• Do not use a stick-free sauce pan. There is a lot of whisking!

 Ingredients

• 1½ cup chopped pecans
• 7 1/2 tbsp salted butter
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup of half  & half 
• 1 tbls pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Lighty toast pecans in 1/2 tbls of butter in a heavy skillet set aside.
2. Combine the 7 tbls of butter,  both sugars, and half in half into a large saucepan, mix well on low heat for 2 minutes.
3. Turn the heat up to medium and bring the candy mixture to 180 F, then stop stirring and let the candy mixture cook to 245 F (about 3-5minutes) without stirring
4. When temp reaches 245, add in the vanilla extract, and stir.
5. Remove from the heat.
6. Toss in the pecans, and fold in.
7. Grab a wooden spoon, and stir the hot candy mixture until it thickens (this will happen quickly).
8. Spoon out the candy mixture onto parchment paper in 2 in piles, you won't have long once the candy has started to set, work fast!
9. Let the candy cool completely.
10. Enjoy!