Brittle is a type of confection consisting of flat broken pieces of hard sugar candy embedded with nuts such as , , or ,
Types
It has many variations around the world, such as:
In parts of the Middle East, brittle is made with ,[Chu, Anita. Field Guide to Candy: How to Identify and Make Virtually Every Candy Imaginable. Philadelphia: Quirk, 2009.] The term "brittle" in the context of the food first appeared in print in 1892, though the candy itself has been around for much longer.
Preparation of American peanut brittle
Traditionally, a mixture of sugar and water is heated to the hard crack stage corresponding to a temperature of approximately , although some recipes also call for ingredients such as glucose and salt in the first step.
Nuts are mixed with the
caramelization sugar. At this point spices,
, and often
peanut butter or butter are added. The hot candy is poured out onto a flat surface for cooling, traditionally a granite, a marble slab or a baking sheet. The hot candy may be troweled to uniform thickness. When the brittle is cool enough to handle, it is broken into pieces.
It is also rare to break the brittle into equal pieces.
Nougatine
Nougatine is a similar confection to brittle, but made of sliced almonds instead of whole peanuts, which are embedded in clear caramel.
See also
External links
