Mark Bittman’s Peanut Brittle

Crunchy homemade peanut brittle, the easiest candy you’ll ever make. Follow the steps for this old fashioned recipe.

I received a copy of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food – 20th Anniversary Edition – for my use and review. All opinions are my own.

MARK BITTMAN is the author of thirty acclaimed books, including the How to Cook Everything series, the award-winning Food Matters, and the New YorkTimes number-one bestseller, VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00. For more than two decades his popular and compelling stories appeared in the Times, where he was ultimately the lead food writer for the Sunday magazine. Bittman has starred in four television series, including Showtime’s Emmy-winning Years of Living Dangerously. He has written for nearly every major newspaper in the United States. Throughout his career Bittman has strived for the same goal: to make food, in all its aspects, understandable.

Ever since I can remember, we would cook with Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. It was always sitting on our countertop with tons of pages bookmarked and almost falling apart – telltale signs of a great cookbook.

To think that 20 years later, I’d receive an email asking if I wanted a copy of his How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food – 20th Anniversary Edition, blows my mind. Full circle.

This cookbook touches on EVERYTHING a cook and baker would need to know! Perfect for everyday cooking with simple ingredients that most people already have on their pantry or are available at their local market.

Out of 960 pages, I found myself quickly rushing to the Desserts section (of course) and decided to make candy. I’ve had a few not very positive encounters with candy before, so I wanted to see how Mark Bittman makes candy. And it is surprisingly easy.

How to make Peanut Brittle

To make peanut brittle, you’re going to need:

• Butter, for greasing
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 2 cups roasted peanuts (you can use any nut, too)
• Salt, if peanuts are unsalted
• Baking pan

First, grease the rimmed baking pan with butter. Place the sugar and 1/3 cup water in a medium saucepan over low heat. Cook, without stirring, until the sugar dissolves and becomes a nutty caramel color but it’s not yet dark brown, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Stir in the peanuts and salt if you’re using it until combined. Remove from the heat and immediately pour the candy onto the prepared baking sheet and tilt the pan if it’s not spreading fast enough to coat the bottom. Let cool at room temperature.

Break it into pieces when cool. Store in a covered container at room temperature indefinitely. Enjoy!

As always, if you loved this recipe, leave a comment and rate! Don’t forget to share your creations with me on Instagram using the hashtag #yogaofcooking. It always makes my day!

Happy Baking! x

Print

This recipe has been shared with permission from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, it’s publisher.