Homemade for Christmas

Archive for December, 2009

Homemade peanut brittle in a cheery cellophane bag.

What tastes better than homemade peanut brittle? This recipe, made in a microwave, takes all of 15 minutes, plus cooling time. This is a great treat to put together while you are cleaning up after dinner. You need to be there, but you don’t need to stir it a lot or watch it. It’s easy and always comes out right.

What you need

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2  cup white Karo syrup
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 cup raw Spanish peanuts
• 1 tbl. butter
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Preparation:

Set the oven to 200 and place a cookie sheet or pizza pan sprayed with pam or rubbed with butter in the oven. Mix sugar, karo, and salt, and peanuts in a large, microwave-proof glass bowl. Cook in the microwave for about 4-5 minutes dpending on the wattage of your oven. Less expensive models have lower wattage and need to cook longer. The mixture should be a soft golden color. Remove from oven (it’s very hot, be very careful) add the butter, mixing it in. Then cook for 4-5 more minutes. Take a spoonful and test with a glass of water, you want a hard crack stage, where the mixture forms brittle strings that easily break. The color should be a medium amber and smell wonderfully.  Carefully remove from the microwave and add  soda and vanilla all at once, mixing thoroughly. Spread on the warm pan from the oven. Work fast as this sets up quickly. Cool, then break into pieces and store in a jar, with tight fitting lid. If the brittle seems sticky and chewy, or won’t break apart easily, put it in the oven at 350 until it starts to bubble. Then let it re-cool and crack.

PRESENTATION

I like to put peanut brittle in the cellophane bags you can get at the Dollar store. Or you can give away a whole pint canning jar and decorate the top with a cloth wrap. It costs about $2.00 to make a batch of peanut brittle. Do not double the recipe as the amounts listed seem to cook best with any microwave. Larger amounts take longer to cook and make break the glass bowl you are using to cook with.

Homemade peanut brittle in a cheery cellophane bag.

Christmas cookies take a lot of time and don’t mail well. Here are some ideas for easy Christmas candies that are relatively inexpensive, and you can ship. Some candy is expensive, time consuming, and tricky. These recipes can be whipped together in about a half hour. Included are my estimations of costs, and even some additional tips to make them more inexpensive and to present them beautifully.

Homemade Rockyroad candy in a clam shell - Cost to make $1.50

Rocky Road Fudge

2 pkgs of chocolate chips, (12 oz)  (I have used chocolate flavored chips from the Dollar Store and  it tastes almost as good)

1 recipe sweetened condensed milk (see below) or one can of sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups  mini-marshmallows

2 cups peanuts (buy these at the Dollar store too) dry-roasted works well, salted or unsalted are okay.

Watching carefully, melt chocolate and milk in a large glass bowl in the microwave for about 90 sec. Don’t wait for it all to melt, as soon as it starts melting, take it out and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon, adding vanilla.  It shouldn’t be really hot, because that will melt the marshmallows, just all melted together and smooth. If it’s not melted, put it back in, but watch it closely.

Then add marshmallows and nuts, folding them in. You don’t want the marshmallows to melt.

Put the whole mixture in a 9 inch buttered pan, depending on how big you want the pieces to be. Cool in fridge for 2 hours, then cut into the size you want. Using the homemade condensed milk, I can make a batch of this fudge for about $4.50.

To make your own sweetened condensed milk:

SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK:

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