almond brittle

The only reason this is brittle is because it's frozen. Used too much honey. Well, I guess that taught me a lesson, eh?

I didn't want to use corn syrup so I used honey instead. The honey wouldn't come out of the little plastic bear fast enough so I heated it in the microwave, then it all poured out at once. I dumped the whole bear's worth, about one cup. That was too much. Half the bear would have done.

When I added the vanilla at the very end, POW! It nearly boiled right out of the pot. It was spattering like lava alarmingly. Quite dramatic.

But before all of that I roughly chopped the almonds and heated them in a separate pan. They were reserved in a bowl for the very end.

* 1 and 1/2 cups sugar

* 1/4 cup water

* 1/4 teaspoon salt

* 1/2 cup honey (I used 1 cup and that was too much)

Boil. Do not stir. Swirl if you must, but do not stir. If you over stir, everybody dies. No really, the sugar re-crystalizes and you end up with a mess and must start over.

* heat to 300℉ / 150℃ Here's where a thermometer is handy. Otherwise, candy makers use the soft-ball water test. They stick their finger a knife in the mixture then into a glass of water and test to see if the ball of sugar stays soft or turns hard. The color of the sugar is also a clue to doneness. Brown is nutty flavor, and very dark brown is a horrible disgusting burnt flavor. Plus, burning sugar makes the kitchen stink. So you have those clues working for you.

* 2 tablespoons butter

* 1 teaspoon baking powder

It foams when you add the baking powder. Be prepared for the magma-like mixture to rise up like an open fumarole. If you add a liquid, like I did with the vanilla, then it boils violently and immediately and threatens to overtake even a four quart or four liter pot.

Turn out onto a buttered pan or one covered with buttered aluminum foil. I used a Silpat which is brilliant for this. Stretch the foamy mixture as it cools using two forks. This gives you a chance to arrange the nuts on the tray with the hardening sludge between lumps.

Online sites make a fuss about taking care to soak utensils immediately in hot or boiling water. This is all nonsense. The mess left over, pot, knives, forks, spoons, trays, countertop, etc, are all easily wiped with water. It's sugar. It dissolves in water. Just soak things in the ordinary way.

Although not properly brittle, this is quite delicious. The honey and the vanilla are nice additions. I was making ice-tea heavy with lemon at the same time as this and it occurred to me too late that lemon zest would be great here too. Whatever nuts are used, pecans are my second choice, I think it's an important step to toast them first. They probably cook sufficiently in the hot sugar but I like the roasted flavor imparted by putting a singe on them. Those are the little black bits floating around in mine.

I bet this could be jazzed up with chile flakes or with pepper. Ginger. Or as mentioned, orange or lemon zest.