Flavored nut brittles

[Darienne]

I have been making nut brittles lately using piloncillo /panela / palm sugar and having a good time. PanaCan gave me a lovely recipe from Ecuador which calls for 1 cup shredded ginger to 4 cups of sugar. I loved it. Dawn, who is helping with the renovations, thought it needed more ginger. Ed, the DH, said...way too much ginger. OK.

So I thought...what about orange flavor? lemon or lime flavor? high contrast to sweet sugar flavors?

Found some fairly anemic recipes online and thought I would turn to eG for advice.

Who has some lovely tasty answers for me, please?

[JeanneCake]

a friend of mine years ago made a sundried cherry and hazelnut brittle which I always wanted to try but never got a recipe for. My mother in law likes to send us food gifts at the holidays and one year it was a variety of nut brittles (peanut, pecan and cashew) and I liked the cashew better than the others.... however my favorite nut would be a macadamia....

[Mjx]

The recipe with ginger may need tweaking to suit your husband's taste, but the basic idea sounds very good; spices always seem to work really nicely with nuts. Fruit flavourings (as in extracts or juices), not much, although small pieces (i.e. not larger than the nut pieces) of dried fruit can be really good.

Or maybe well-crushed coffee beans or cacao nibs?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Actually, the ginger quick-candies in the sugar while it's reducing, which gives you kick without being too spicy in the end.

Darienne - there's another variation using the ginger syrup you already have the recipe for, but in place of the peanuts and sesame it takes half and half shredded coconut and candied citrus peels. That's Dulce Encocado. If you add Macadamias, it becomes Fantasia Encocado.

[Darienne]

Thanks all.

I was not thinking about pieces of fruit, but more about lemon, lime or orange zest...should have said so. I'll just try it in small batches and see how it works.

Might try ground espresso coffee. Or 'not ground but crushed' beans.

[Lior]

I once bought the most perfect brittle- If I recall, it had sesame seeds, almonds, salt, pepper, and something spicy-like with a bite to it. I do not get obsessive hardly ever, with a food, but this, I just had to have another one-all the time, until there were none left.I need to go there and get more. I will take a photo and analyse it so we can make it!Delicious!

[ScoopKW]

Pecan Brittle

I just use my favorite peanut brittle recipe and substitute pecans.

[Darienne]

I once bought the most perfect brittle- If I recall, it had sesame seeds, almonds, salt, pepper, and something spicy-like with a bite to it. I do not get obsessive hardly ever, with a food, but this, I just had to have another one-all the time, until there were none left.I need to go there and get more. I will take a photo and analyse it so we can make it!Delicious!

You, as always, are a sweetie...along with several dozen other eG sweeties, of course.

Salt & pepper and biting spice. Could be ground ancho chiles...a bit of a bite, but not too much...or ground chipotles...more bite...or a dozen others things.

I think I'll try one with ground chiles. My newest obsession, in a long line of obsessions. So thrilled to be able to buy piloncillo locally!!! :wub:

[Emily_R]

I just saw a recipe on Food52 for pine nut and rosemary brittle -- the rosemary sounds like a wonderful addition to a lot of nut brittles. And I think if you're going to go spicy, that aleppo pepper would be wonderful... It has such great frutiness, and the aleppo I get from Penzeys is great size -- not too big, but not powder...

[butterscotch]

Jacques Torres makes a spiced pecan brittle that is awesome. Not sure what kind of hot pepper but I think there are other spices in it too.

It's amazing, Wish I could recreate it.

[blue_dolphin]

Salt & pepper and biting spice. Could be ground ancho chiles...a bit of a bite, but not too much...or ground chipotles...more bite...or a dozen others things.

I think I'll try one with ground chiles. My newest obsession, in a long line of obsessions. So thrilled to be able to buy piloncillo locally!!! :wub:

I just saw a recipe on Food52 for pine nut and rosemary brittle -- the rosemary sounds like a wonderful addition to a lot of nut brittles. And I think if you're going to go spicy, that aleppo pepper would be wonderful... It has such great frutiness, and the aleppo I get from Penzeys is great size -- not too big, but not powder...

Hmmm. I like the rosemary idea and I'm thinking a pine nut and chipotle brittle would be most excellent.

I know nothing of candy making, aside from making cashew brittle for holiday gifts for years, always with the peanut brittle recipe in James Beard's American Cookery which adds raw nuts fairly early in the cooking process. Salt, baking soda and vanilla are added right at the end.

At what point would you add things like ground chiles or rosemary? Would they really flavor the brittle well if added just before turning it out? I imagine they would scorch if added when I add the raw nuts (140-145 degrees F)

[Darienne]

At what point would you add things like ground chiles or rosemary? Would they really flavor the brittle well if added just before turning it out? I imagine they would scorch if added when I add the raw nuts (140-145 degrees F)

Have just downloaded three different recipes for chile flavored brittle and they add the chile/cayenne/paprika/whatever at three different times: beginning, middle and end.

So either we are lucky and someone who has done it successfully answers this question...or we get to work and find out for ourselves.

[Darienne]

Ah, too late to edit.

Just reread my three different recipes again and found in the engineer's recipe a good tip I never heard before. Heat the pan (with silpat sheet) to 200 degrees to help spread the mixture thinly and evenly enough. Trust the engineer's mind. (I am an Engineer's daughter. )

[Lisa Shock]

I like to sprinkle on kosher salt after the brittle is poured and shaped, so that it's coated like a pretzel. The contrast is very tasty. I have added cayenne at the beginning of a cook and it was fine -the batch was too spicy from too much cayenne, but it didn't burn. I have also added chile powder to my salt coating, but, some people found the powdery residue on the outside to be unappealing.

[Darienne]

I have added cayenne at the beginning of a cook and it was fine

Thanks for the experiential information. Always a huge help.