brittle (food)

{{Infobox prepared food

| name = Brittle

| image = Golden peanut brittle cracked on a serving dish.jpg

| image_size = 250px

| caption = Golden peanut brittle cracked on a serving dish

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| type = Confectionery

| served =

| main_ingredient = Sugar, nuts, water, butter

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Brittle is a type of confection consisting of flat broken pieces of hard sugar candy embedded with nuts such as pecans, almonds, or peanuts,{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-DL6SqOwx3kC&q=brittle&pg=PA115 |page=34 |title=Sweet Tooth: The Bittersweet History of Candy |author=Kate Hopkins |access-date=April 11, 2013 |year=2012 |publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9781250011190 }} and which are usually less than 1 cm thick.

Types

It has many variations around the world, such as:

pasteli in Greece
sohan in Iran{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PnBhZttHWdUC&q=pasteli+in+Greece&pg=PA251 |title=Gourmet Gifts: 100 Delicious Recipes for Every Occasion to Make Yourself & Wrap with Style |page=251 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |author=Dinah Corley |year=2011 |isbn=978-1558324350 }}
croquant{{cite book |title=The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adrià's elBulli |page=82 |author=Lisa Abend |year=2011 |publisher=Simon and Schuster}} or nougatine in France
croccante in Italy{{Cite web |date=2020-12-21 |title=Holiday Sweets: We Love Croccante (And So Will You) |url=https://www.lacucinaitaliana.com/italian-food/how-to-cook/holidays-what-croccante-almond-brittle |access-date=2024-06-13 |website=La Cucina Italiana |language=en-US}}
krokant in Croatia and Germany{{Cite web |title=Slatko i dekorativno: Pripremi najbolji krokant od badema |url=https://gastro.24sata.hr/spajza/slatko-i-dekorativno-pripremi-najbolji-krokant-od-badema-27676 |access-date=2024-06-13 |website=gastro.24sata.hr |language=hr}}{{cite web | url=https://www.mein-macaron.de/recipe/haselnusskrokant/ | title=Haselnusskrokant }}
alegría or palanqueta in Mexico{{cite web | url=https://deliciasprehispanicas.com/2015/12/21/el-origen-de-la-palabra-palanqueta-y-la-fiesta-del-maiz/ | date=December 21, 2015 | title=El origen de la palabra Palanqueta y La Fiesta del Maíz}}
pé-de-moleque in Brazil
panocha mani, panutsa mani, or samani in the Philippines (which can also be made with pili nut){{cite book |last1=Polistico |first1=Edgie |title=Philippine Food, Cooking, & Dining Dictionary |date=2017 |publisher=Anvil Publishing, Inc. |isbn=9786214200870}}
gozinaki in Georgia
gachak in Indian Punjab, chikki in other parts of India
kotkoti in Bangladesh{{cite web |url=http://weloveourbangladesh.blogspot.com/2011/01/peanut-or-cheena-badam-is-popular.html |date=January 11, 2011 |title=Peanut or Cheena Badam is popular outdoor leisure snack food in Bangladesh}}
sohan halwa in Pakistan{{citation needed|date=April 2013}}
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,{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/worldonplatetour0000denk |url-access=registration |quote=brittle pistachios middle east. |page=[https://archive.org/details/worldonplatetour0000denk/page/33 33] |title=The World on a Plate: A Tour Through the History of America's Ethnic Cuisine |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |access-date=April 11, 2013 |year=2007 |author=Joel Denker|isbn=978-0803260146 }} while many Asian countries use sesame seeds and peanuts.{{cite news |url=http://travel.cnn.com/bangkok/play/goddesses-and-peanut-brittle-year-celebrate-songkran-supernatural-style-514411 |date=April 12, 2011 |access-date=April 11, 2013 |title=Goddesses and peanut brittle: This year, celebrate Songkran in supernatural style |author=Leela Punyaratabandhu |publisher=CNN}} Peanut brittle is the most popular brittle recipe in the United States.Chu, Anita. Field Guide to Candy: How to Identify and Make Virtually Every Candy Imaginable. Philadelphia: Quirk, 2009. 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.{{cite web |work=The Food Timeline |first=Lynne |last=Olver |author-link=Lynne Olver |title=Brittle |url=http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcandy.html#brittle}}

Preparation of American peanut brittle

Traditionally, a mixture of sugar and water is heated to the hard crack stage corresponding to a temperature of approximately {{convert|295|to|309|F|C|order=flip}}, although some recipes also call for ingredients such as glucose and salt in the first step.{{cite web|url=http://www.joyofbaking.com/candy/PeanutBrittle.html|title=Peanut Brittle Recipe *Video Recipe* |publisher= Joyofbaking.com}} 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.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SEa1NJxPngAC&q=brittle+300+%C2%B0F&pg=PA418 |page=418 |access-date=April 11, 2013 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2011 |title=Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible: The New Classic Guide to Delicious Dishes with More Than 300 Recipes |author=Paula Deen |isbn=9781416564126 }} 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.{{Cite book |last=Gisslen |first=Wayne |title=Professional baking |date=2017 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-119-14844-9 |edition=Seventh |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |page=656 |oclc=944179855}}

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline|Seed brittles}}

Category:Cuisine of the Southern United States

Category:Peanut confectionery

Category:Nut confections