WATCH THE VIDEO!
Making candy isn’t the easiest thing in the world. This Heartbreaker Nut Brittle is worth the struggle.
Candy making is hot and sticky. So, it’s a little more dangerous than your typical dessert. Candy also requires your undivided attention and your most agile culinary reflexes. You’ve got to tap your keenest intuition and above all else, you must believe you will persevere over the Nut Brittle.
To throw an extra curve ball, I developed this Nut Brittle Recipe without corn syrup. It’s not an ingredient I keep on hand and so, this candy is slightly more temperamental than your typical nut brittle. Watch the Heartbreaker Nut Brittle Video for added instruction and entertainment.
Ingredients for Heartbreaker Nut Brittle:
3 cups nuts (blistered peanuts, raw almonds, macadamia, walnuts)
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 TBSP butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
NOTES:
Makes about 5 cups brittle. Have all of the ingredients and equipment prepared before beginning. Once the sugar changes color you will need to act quickly. It’s also important to have even heat when you’re making candy. Use a heavy saucepan if possible. If you question your pan or your heating SOURCE, you can put your saucepan into a cast iron skillet to help distribute the heat.
DIRECTIONS:
1) In a saucepan over medium/medium-high heat combine sugar, water and salt.
2) When the mixture comes to a gentle boil and the sugar is dissolved, set a timer for ten minutes.
3) Stirring occasionally, watch for the color to change from clear, to a light amber color. This may take 10 minutes or up to 20, depending on the heat of medium/medium-high on your stove. As soon as the color is a light, golden amber – get it off the heat! If you’d like, use a candy thermometer and when the mixture reaches 300(F) take it off the heat.
4) Working quickly, and stirring continuously, add butter, vanilla and baking soda. The mixture will foam. Continue stirring until the foaming subsides and the mixture starts to get glossy.
5) Stir in the nuts all at once and quickly turn out onto a silicon baking mat or very well greased baking sheet.
6) Flatten the mixture as needed and allow to cool for about 20 minutes, until brittle.
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I would love to have the heartbreaker nut brittle receipe. I have one for the microvae oven, have a hard time getting it right. I don’t belong to facebook all I have is email. I would love to have yours.
Thank you Wanda Mashburn
Hi Wanda, Wish no more — you found the recipe. It’s on this page. The ingredient list and directions are above. For added instruction watch the video. Nut Brittle is tricky!
I cut this recipe in half and used only peanuts since it’s the only thing I had on hand. It came out wonderful! I’ve used corn syrup in the past, then realized how bad it was and wanted to make a brittle without it. An easy trick to see if the sugar syrup is ready to be mixed with the nuts is drop a little in a cold glass of water, it will go hard right away and you know it’s ready :)
Average Betty with an above average recipe, well done!
I just made this! Used the cup of water trick from above, and it took about 22 minutes boiling to get it right… It seems like it worked ok- but the candy doesn’t have a “glossy” look. Any ideas why not?
I tried this recipe 3 times and every time it came out wrong. I’ve made nut brittle hundreds of times with corn syrup and really wanted to make it without. I can’t understand what I keep doing wrong and am so incredibly frustrated. I even used a candy thermometer the last time. The sugar started to get dark but the temp never even reached 250. I didn’t want it to burn so I took it off the heat but it’s not the right consistency. What am I doing wrong???
I made this recipe 6 times. Only came out right 2x despite doing the same thing each time. I used a candy thermometer too. It’s really kind of crazy making.
My brittle has turned into a sugary mess before too. I believe it’s because I put too much baking soda and over mixed it making it too frothy. I throw everything in at the same time in the end, I give it a quick mix and put it in a greased pyrex dish, then flatten it out as much as I can with a rubber spatula.
One word…………DELISH! Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Great recipe! I sure love that this recipe doesn’t have corn syrup!
I tried this recipe and I think I heated it for too long because the water evaporated from the mixture and I was left with sugar in my pot. I wanted to keep the heat on because the consistency and color wasn’t right. I then added a little bit of water, thinking it would go back to what I wanted, then I followed the rest of the recipe. I guess it kind of worked, but the caramel color was light.
Any thoughts why this happened? How do I get my color right?
Did not work for me … Sugar Water Mix turned hard shortly after taking it off the stove … Wish i could upload a picture of my hot mess peanut brittle … I probably have to use an option with corn syrup … I don’t want it to fail again the peanuts are just too freakin’ expensive to keep trying around … :(
Really sorry it didn’t work out… that’s why I call it heartbreaker…
Turns out fantastic. Thank you for such a great recipe. Very easy instructions and great result.
I love peanut brittle; however, I love pistachios more than peanuts so I had intended to use up the half bag of shelled pistachios in brittle. Looked around for a recipe since I haven’t made brittle in a while and found yours which I adapted. Candy often fails if you don’t add some sort of invert sugar (corn syrup or honey) or acid such as tartaric acid or lemon or lime juice. Since I don’t like tartaric acid and only use lemon juice when making fruit syrups I decided on honey. (I love honey!) The pistachios were salted so I left out the salt and used unsalted butter. As far as cooking the sugar I use a candy thermometer and when the temp gets close I have an infrared thermometer which gives an accurate measure of the syrups state. Well it came out fantastic. Never had brittle with pistachios before but it’s now my favorite. I’ll have to try pecans next because they are my second favorite nut. Thanks for the recipe.
Worked great for me on the first try except I ussed raw peanuts and they didn’t really cook like they do in other recipes. Still delicious:)
Everytime i made this recipe my candy thermometer didnt get close to 300 f before the sugar seized up. You need to check your measurements.
I want to print the recipe, so I can keep it in my file. But can’t find a print button anywhere; where is it?? Well hidden.
3 times I’ve tried this and it goes rock hard when I add the peanuts butter and baking powder I’m giving up now
Fabulous recipe! High fructose corn syrup is so bad for you. This recipe worked great! Since microwave voltage varies from appliance to appliance, it is difficult to get it right. This one works great if you pay attention. Would you happen to have a recipe for pecan pie without corn syrup? I would love it!
Argh! Tried making it 3x and it never hardened up. Always stayed a sloppy but tasty mess of peanuts and liquid amber sugar. I reallllllllly wanted to bring this to Christmas but alas…I may not. Why is it so hard? Seems like it ought not to be.
Is it possible you have added too much water on the ingredient list? Seems like a lot, 1.5 cups.
Wondering if it’s a typo. Maybe it also doesn’t work with natural sugar, unprocessed….only the white stuff?
Ok will try tomorrow with regular white sugar.
Not printer friendly peanut brittle without corn syrup Thank yu
I got better results when I didn’t stir it.
I just made it again, and I added boiling water to the sugar and stirred it until dissolved, and added a slurp of bottled lemon juice to it. I did NOT stir it any more when simmering the mixture to get it to temp, and when I added the nuts to it, I made sure that the nuts were piping hot. I also think this recipe is best with a candy thermometer.
Also, using a cast iron skillet as a buffer is a great tip!
Hi there,
Fabulous receipt. I tripled this receipt to make gifts for loved ones. I’d suggest if you’re making a large batch to do it twice. Very hard to shape a giant batch. I added more butter for a creamier look. I also made an almond and orange rind batch. Just completely dreamy. Fun receipt to work with…
Thanks Above Average BETTY!!!