Kick Up Your Peanut Brittle With Chile Powders

[Willy]

Try adding some chile powder to your favorite peanut brittle recipe. So good. For a recipe calling for 3 cups of sugar and 1 pound of peanuts, we added 2 T ancho and 3/4 t cayenne during the boil. Turned our fairly mild, so I'd double the cayenne next time. C'mon you Reaper, Ghost, Scorpion folks--dry and grind some pods and add some of THAT to your peanut brittle!

Another "secret" for improving brittle is to add some baking soda. The recipe we used called for 2 T for the above amounts of sugar and nuts. It is added once the mixture is done at 300°F (hard crack). Take the mixture off heat, sprinkle the soda over it, then stir--quickly. The mixture will foam up and must be dumped onto a LARGE sheet of greased Al foil. You only have a few seconds, so move quickly.

The use of baking soda results in a fine-grained "honeycomb"or foam that is quite brittle but not so hard to chew.

Try it; you'll like it.

[customtrim]

Sounds great. My peppers I let dry naturally so another month should be ready

[Willy]

I think you'll like it. The 2 T of ancho gives a nice chile background that you can spice up as you wish with whatever "heat" you choose. Don't forget the baking soda.

[texastweeter]

we saute down scorpions in butter, then cook the peanuts in the butter, add in maple syrup, cook down and then put the individual peanuts on wax paper to dry. they are fantastic, but most folks can only handle a couple at a time. i can give more detailed instructions if you need. Word of advice...DO IT OUTDOORS. Don't ask how i know. Nearly got divorced.

[Willy]

LOL I once put a dozen habaneros in a blender indoors. Dang near choked to death!

I'd LOVE the details!