Peanut 🥜 Brittle

January 26th is National Peanut 🥜 Brittle Day

Brittle is a type of confection consisting of flat broken pieces of hard sugar candy embedded with nuts such as pecans, almonds, or peanuts, which are usually less than 1 cm thick. It has many variations around the world, such as pasteli in Greece, croquant in France, alegría or "palanqueta" in Mexico, gozinaki in Georgia, gachak in Indian Punjab, chikki in other parts of India, kotkoti in Bangladesh, 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, while many Asian countries use sesame seeds and peanuts. Peanut brittle is the most popular brittle recipe in the US. The term brittle first appeared in print since 1892, though the candy itself has been around for much longer.

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. 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. It is also rare to break the brittle into equal pieces.

Every January 26th :

  • International Customs Day
  • Lotus 1-2-3 Day
  • National Green Juice Day
  • Spouse's Day
  • Toad Hollow Day of Encouragement

On the fourth Tuesday in January :

  • Speak Up and Succeed Day

What will you be celebrating? How will you do it?