Brittle (food)

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Brittle
Golden peanut brittle cracked on a serving dish.jpg
Golden peanut brittle cracked on a serving dish
Type Confectionery
Main ingredients Sugar, nuts, water, butter

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] and which are usually less than 1 cm thick.

Contents

Types

It has many variations around the world, such as pasteli in Greece; sohan in Iran; [2] croquant in France; [3] alegría or palanqueta in Mexico; [4] pé-de-moleque in Brazil; panocha mani , panutsa mani, or samani in the Philippines (which can also be made with pili nut); [5] gozinaki in Georgia; gachak in Indian Punjab, chikki in other parts of India; kotkoti in Bangladesh; [6] sohan halwa in Pakistan;[ citation needed ]huasheng tang (花生糖) in China; thua tat (ถั่วตัด) in Thailand; and kẹo lạc, kẹo hạt điều in Vietnam. In parts of the Middle East, brittle is made with pistachios, [7] while many Asian countries use sesame seeds and peanuts. [8] Peanut brittle is the most popular brittle recipe in the United States. [9] The term "brittle" in the context of the food first appeared in print in 1892, though the candy itself has been around for much longer. [10]

Preparation

Traditionally, a mixture of sugar and water is heated to the hard crack stage corresponding to a temperature of approximately 146 to 154 °C (295 to 309 °F), although some recipes also call for ingredients such as glucose and salt in the first step. [11] 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. [12] It is also rare to break the brittle into equal pieces.

Nougatine

Nougatine is a similar confection to brittle, but made of sliced almonds instead of whole peanuts, which are embedded in clear caramel. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confectionery</span> Prepared foods rich in sugar and carbohydrates

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halva</span> Confections often made from nut butters or flours

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Praline (nut confection)</span> Confection made with nuts

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nougat</span> Confection

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A candy bar is a type of candy that is in the shape of a bar. The most common type of candy bar is the chocolate bar, including both bars made of solid chocolate and combination candy bars, which are candy bars that combine chocolate with other ingredients, such as nuts, caramel, nougat, or wafers.

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. Polistico, Edgie (2017). Philippine Food, Cooking, & Dining Dictionary. Anvil Publishing, Inc. ISBN   9786214200870.
  6. "Peanut or Cheena Badam is popular outdoor leisure snack food in Bangladesh". January 11, 2011.
  7. 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.
  8. Leela Punyaratabandhu (April 12, 2011). "Goddesses and peanut brittle: This year, celebrate Songkran in supernatural style". CNN. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  9. Chu, Anita. Field Guide to Candy: How to Identify and Make Virtually Every Candy Imaginable. Philadelphia: Quirk, 2009.
  10. Olver, Lynne. "Brittle". The Food Timeline .
  11. "Peanut Brittle Recipe *Video Recipe*". Joyofbaking.com.
  12. 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.
  13. Gisslen, Wayne (2017). Professional baking (Seventh ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. p. 656. ISBN   978-1-119-14844-9. OCLC   944179855.