Brittle (food)

Brittle is a type of confection consisting of flat broken pieces of hard sugar candy embedded with nuts such as pecans, almonds, or peanuts,[1] which are usually less than 1 cm thick. It has many variations around the world, such as pasteli in Greece,[2] croquant in France,[3] alegría or "palanqueta" in Mexico,[4] gozinaki in Georgia, gachak in Indian Punjab, chikki in other parts of India, kotkoti in Bangladesh,[5] Huasheng tang(花生糖) in China, Thua Tat (ถั่วตัด) in Thailand and kẹo lạc in Vietnam. In parts of the Middle East, brittle is made with pistachios,[6] while many Asian countries use sesame seeds and peanuts.[7] Peanut brittle is the most popular brittle recipe in the US.[8] The term brittle first appeared in print since 1892, though the candy itself has been around for much longer.[9]

Brittle
Golden peanut brittle cracked on a serving dish
TypeConfectionery
Main ingredientsSugar, nuts, water, butter

Traditionally, a mixture of sugar and water is heated to the hard crack stage corresponding to a temperature of approximately 300 °F (149 °C), although some recipes also call for ingredients such as glucose and salt in the first step.[10] Nuts are mixed with the caramelized sugar. At this point spices, leavening agents, 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.[11] It is also rare to break the brittle into equal pieces.

See also

References
  1. Kate Hopkins (2012). Sweet Tooth: The Bittersweet History of Candy. Macmillan. p. 34. ISBN 9781250011190. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  2. Dinah Corley (2011). Gourmet Gifts: 100 Delicious Recipes for Every Occasion to Make Yourself & Wrap with Style. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 251. ISBN 978-1558324350.
  3. Lisa Abend (2011). The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adrià's elBulli. Simon and Schuster. p. 82.
  4. "El origen de la palabra Palanqueta y La Fiesta del Maíz". December 21, 2015.
  5. "Peanut or Cheena Badam is popular outdoor leisure snack food in Bangladesh". January 11, 2011.
  6. Joel Denker (2007). The World on a Plate: A Tour Through the History of America's Ethnic Cuisine. University of Nebraska Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0803260146. Retrieved April 11, 2013. brittle pistachios middle east.
  7. Leela Punyaratabandhu (April 12, 2011). "Goddesses and peanut brittle: This year, celebrate Songkran in supernatural style". CNN. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  8. Chu, Anita. Field Guide to Candy: How to Identify and Make Virtually Every Candy Imaginable. Philadelphia: Quirk, 2009.
  9. Olver, Lynne. "Brittle". The Food Timeline.
  10. "Peanut Brittle Recipe *Video Recipe*". Joyofbaking.com.
  11. Paula Deen (2011). Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible: The New Classic Guide to Delicious Dishes with More Than 300 Recipes. Simon & Schuster. p. 418. ISBN 9781416564126. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
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