Brittle (food)
 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 (0.4 in) thick.
Types
[edit]It has many variations around the world, such as:
- pasteli in Greece
- sohan in Iran[2]
- croquant[3] or nougatine in France
- croccante in Italy[4]
- krokan in Norway
- krokant in Croatia and Germany[5][6]
- torrão in Portugal
- alegría or palanqueta in Mexico[7]
- pé-de-moleque in Brazil
- panocha mani, panutsa mani, or samani in the Philippines (which can also be made with pili nut)[8]
- gozinaki in Georgia
- gachak in Indian Punjab, chikki in other parts of India
- kotkoti in Bangladesh[9]
- gajak in Pakistan[citation needed]
- huasheng tang (花生糖) in China
- thua tat (ถั่วตัด) in Thailand
- kẹo lạc, kẹo hạt điều in Vietnam.
- praline in Louisiana, traditionally made with pecans.
In parts of the Middle East, brittle is made with pistachios,[10] while many Asian countries use sesame seeds and peanuts.[11] Peanut brittle is the most popular brittle recipe in the United States.[12] 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.[13]
Preparation of American peanut brittle
[edit]Traditionally, a mixture of sugar and water is heated to the hard crack stage, reaching approximately 146 to 154 °C (295 to 309 °F). Some recipes may call for ingredients such as glucose and salt in this step.[14] Next, 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 then poured onto a flat surface to cool, typically a granite slab, 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.[15] It is also rare to break the brittle into equal pieces.
Nougatine
[edit]Nougatine is a similar confection to brittle, but made of sliced almonds instead of whole peanuts, which are embedded in clear caramel.[16]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ↑ Kate Hopkins (2012). Sweet Tooth: The Bittersweet History of Candy. Macmillan. p. 34. ISBN 9781250011190. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Lisa Abend (2011). The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adrià's elBulli. Simon and Schuster. p. 82.
- ↑ "Holiday Sweets: We Love Croccante (And So Will You)". La Cucina Italiana. 2020-12-21. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
- ↑ "Slatko i dekorativno: Pripremi najbolji krokant od badema". gastro.24sata.hr (in Croatian). Retrieved 2024-06-13.
- ↑ "Haselnusskrokant".
- ↑ "El origen de la palabra Palanqueta y La Fiesta del Maíz". December 21, 2015.
- ↑ Polistico, Edgie (2017). Philippine Food, Cooking, & Dining Dictionary. Anvil Publishing, Inc. ISBN 9786214200870.
- ↑ "Peanut or Cheena Badam is popular outdoor leisure snack food in Bangladesh". January 11, 2011.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Leela Punyaratabandhu (April 12, 2011). "Goddesses and peanut brittle: This year, celebrate Songkran in supernatural style". CNN. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
- ↑ Chu, Anita. Field Guide to Candy: How to Identify and Make Virtually Every Candy Imaginable. Philadelphia: Quirk, 2009.
- ↑ Olver, Lynne. "Brittle". The Food Timeline.
- ↑ "Peanut Brittle Recipe *Video Recipe*". Joyofbaking.com.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Gisslen, Wayne (2017). Professional baking (Seventh ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. p. 656. ISBN 978-1-119-14844-9. OCLC 944179855.
External links
[edit]
Media related to Seed brittles at Wikimedia Commons