{recipe} Homemade Peanut Brittle

I love, love, LOVE peanut brittle! I don't think of it all year, then December hits and I've got to have it. What set off the peanut brittle binge this time around? Watching reruns of Frasier. Daphne made Niles homemade peanut brittle and I was in the kitchen 5 minutes later. This is my old, classic recipe. I've been making it forever.

This recipe also makes really great Christmas gifts. A little wax paper lined in a decorative tin, and for less than $10 you can cover everyone at work, neighbors, even mail some out to distant family and friends. Cold winter months are the best when it comes to snail mailing candy. You never have to worry about the melt factor. Everything always arrives perfect.

Equipment
Candy Thermometer

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1 cup peanuts
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons softened room temp butter

Directions
Grease a large baking pan with non stick cooking spray. In a medium sized sauce pan, over medium heat, bring sugar, corn syrup, salt and water to a boil. When the sugar is completely dissolved, stir in your peanuts. Continue stirring about 10 minutes or so until your candy thermometer hits 300 degrees.

USE your candy thermometer! Let it hit 300! I can't stress that enough. If you don't hit 300 degrees on a candy thermometer, you are going to end up with a very chewy old fashioned peanut taffy. It will still crack and look good, it will still taste amazing, you can still eat it, but it's disappointing when it happens if you wanted real brittle. Hitting 300 guarantees that you will have snappy cracky peanut brittle and not peanut chews.

Remove from heat and immediately stir in the butter and baking soda. Quickly pour into your baking pan and use a fork to spread the "dough" out. Let it cool completely, then snap or break into pieces. Num it up!!