My Dad's Peanut Brittle

By Neil Waring
Revered Wyoming Chef, outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen and honored citizen.


I just read another recipe for “Old Fashioned Peanut Brittle” made with dry roasted peanuts in a microwave. THIS IS NOT OLD FASHIONED-THERE IS NOTHING REMOTELY OLD FASHIONED ABOUT MICROVAVES OR DRY ROASTED PEANUTS (dry roasted peanuts are tasty but not old fashioned).
So with thanks to my dad, who really made, “old fashioned peanut brittle” here it is the real stuff.

Here’s what you need – we will call it the Ingredients

1 ½ cups of white sugar - I try to find beet sugar instead of cane sugar. It might not matter but I live in Wyoming where farmers grow sugar beets, a tad too cold here for sugarcane.
½ cup of white corn syrup – this stuff pours out really slow, use your finger to wipe out the excess. Lick excess or let grandkids have it (I favor the grandkid approach but it tastes pretty good)
¼ cup water – Tap water only –do not use the bottled stuff – REMBER –OLD FASHIONED
1 ½ cups of raw peanuts- raw –never been cooked or freeze dried
½ teaspoon salt – Sorry but if you are on a low salt diet you must still put this in – my wife says, “don’t change it, and don’t leave anything out.”
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda – Soda not powder, they do look alike but soda is often in a bigger container. I remember one time when I switched (accidentally) soda and powder. It was before I had become the famous cooking expert that I am now. Anyway it was six or seven years ago –NO—wait a minute it was yesterday. At any rate, don’t mix them up. (Sorry for the bad joke)

How to do it - “ie” - Directions

(Ever wonder what “ie” means and why people use it? Well this is not only a great tasting candy recipe it’s a bit of an English lesson also. It can mean a lot of things but in this case “ie” is from Latin "id est" meaning "that is" or "in other words".
It is widely used to speed up writing because it takes such a long time to say, “in other words or that is.”
So here we go –“ie”- here we go

-Directions-

1. Rub some margarine on cooking sheets – coat them good (old fashioned no cooking spray – Okay use it if you must I do. Ever wonder why no one calls margarine oleo anymore?
2. In a 4 quart saucepan (the big ol’ pan no one ever uses) over medium-high heat, dump in the sugar, corn syrup and water and stir um up. Heat to boiling (lots and lots of bubbles) toss in the raw peanuts. Cook until peanuts turn kind of gold in color and syrup mixture beads off peanuts when raised out of pan. (Use a spoon to make this check, if you stick in your Jack Horner thumb it will blister).
3. Now real Quick mix in the salt and baking soda until well blended. (But don’t overdo the mixing) This is so cool it foams up volcano like and you need to be ready to pour or it will come right out of the pan—please do not think that this has happened to me, but be ready.
4. Pour it onto the prepared cookie sheets. (I love to say prepared cookie sheets like the TV fake chefs). Allow mixture to spread on its own. (Don’t use a fork – took me a while to get the hang of this). Cool completely, and break into pieces. Store in plastic bags. Freeze if you want to save it for awhile before use. Plus when I freeze it I will stay out of it and that can be good.

This is a great recipe – true old fashioned Peanut Brittle –Try It! –Can we say Yum here?

-N-

Christmas Candy Bar Cake

By Neil Waring
Revered Wyoming Chef, outdoor cooking expert, admired woodsmen and honored citizen.

My favorite time of the year is almost here, Christmas time, today one of my favorite holiday recipes.

Here is what you need. Let’s call it the ingredients. -I like Christmas list better-

5 full size candy bars –here is a little hint—buy yourself one of those 6 packs of candy bars. You got it, one to eat while cooking—VERY COOL!

I know, I know, what kind of candy bars? –Hey what do you like? Milky Way, Snickers and Three Musketeers seem to work the best. They need to be a candy bar with the nugget-ee stuff in the middle. (Can’t believe the spell checker didn’t like nugget-ee)

8 regular candy canes - (regular means peppermint, peppermint is what candy canes are supposed to be).

1 cup butter- (real and unsalted)

2 cups sugar

4 eggs- (put the whites in one bowl and the yellows in another bowl)

2 ½ cups flour – One time I thought the recipe said flowers (may have been making something that called for a bit of wine) I used flowers instead of flour –now that was a big mistake but long before I became the revered Wyoming Chef that I am today.

½ tsp of Baking soda

1 ¼ cups Buttermilk – don’t have buttermilk? Let’s face it, who really has buttermilk?

Guess what? You can make your own buttermilk by simply adding one teaspoon (for the real bakers out there that would be 1 tsp – anyway add one tsp of vinegar to 8 ounces of milk and Wa-La you got yourself buttermilk.

1 cup chopped nuts –good stuff, no peanuts although I do like peanuts. Pecans are best but if you are a touch on the cheap side try English walnuts. I like to mix walnuts, pecans and almonds, but remember one cup—no more.

Now here is where it gets difficult—putting all this stuff together.** In a small sauce pan (my dad used to call all canned fruit sauce, don’t think anyone does that anymore).

Anyway in a small sauce pan over low heat melt together the candy bars with ½ cup of butter. Cream sugar with the rest of the butter (stir-um-together)

Add candy and stir together.

Add egg yolks, one at a time mixing as you go. (Don’t need to kill it just blend um up some)

Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk and add alternately with flour to the candy mixture – make sure you end with flour (not sure why you need to end with flour but I think it may be an alphabetical order thing)

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into candy mixture with the pre chopped nuts (I try to use the mixer for this to speed things up – it never works do it by hand. But if you are in a hurry use the mixer and if the peaks don’t happen just pour the crap in, who will know the difference anyway?

Pour mixture into a cake pan –deeper is better- (make sure you pre-greased and floured it)

Now for the topping and this is really cool – chop up the candy canes mix about ½ and ½ with regular granulated white sugar and sprinkle on top 20 minutes before taking out of the oven. (You may have to take it out to do this to save wear and tear on the oven but then put it back for the final 20 minutes.

Bake at 325 degrees for 65-70 minutes

Or you might try to crank up the oven to six or seven hundred and see if it will bake in 15 minutes.

Eat and enjoy!

**One time I just stirred up the whole mess together threw it in the oven at 400 degrees-tasted great, didn’t look too good.