Brittle (food)


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 in China, Thua Tat 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, 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.