This is a simple to make brittle. Originally designed be made with peanuts, it is even better with coarsely chopped macadamia nuts.
All you need is:
3 tablespoons of water
250g butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup nuts (peanuts or other preferred nut)
About half a cup of ground nuts, not too fine. (If you chop macadamia nuts, you should have some ground macadamia at this point as a by-product of crushing/chopping them)
About 200g Cadbury milk chocolate (or preferred brand and flavour of chocolate)
You will also need a wide sided frying pan or a medium saucepan, a baking tray, and some baking paper to line the tray.
The chocolate is pretty much vital. Leaving it out and making just the plain brittle leaves the whole surface open to the atmosphere and it tends to go soggy. The chocolate helps one surface stay dry and significantly improves the flavour.
Pour the sugar into a large saucepan or a frypan with high edges. Once you have made the recipe, you may have a better idea of which of your pans is best to use.
Add the three tablespoons of water to the sugar. There should be just enough water to wet all of the sugar.
The three tablespoons of water are important here. The water acts a lot like a catalyst to bond the butter and sugar into a toffee. If your brittle ends up too oily, try adding a little more water at this stage.
Add the butter and turn on to a low heat. The low heat should melt the butter. Stir gently to mix the butter, water and sugar until the sugar is mostly dissolved.
Turn the stove to a higher heat and stir until the mixture turns a light brown and begins to thin.
If your final brittle is ending up with too much oil coming to the surface, you can try adding some more water at this point. Use your common sense though as this could be dangerous!!!
You can use the old trick of dropping a drop of the toffee into a bowl of water to determine how crisp the toffee will be when it is set. You want it to have a nice crunch to it.
Be careful at this point. The difference between perfection and burnt is a shade of brown and a few seconds.
When the brittle seems to be the correct colour and sets to the desired crunchiness, pour in the nuts and stir through.
As soon as the nuts are stirred in, pour the gloop (new technical term) into a shallow baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.
The baking paper allows the brittle to come out of the tray with no sticking and is a wonderful invention.
As the brittle is setting, paint the melted chocolate over the surface using a pastry brush. the coating should be as thin as possible while covering the brittle so that you can't see the light brown texture. Sprinkle half the crushed nuts over the surface for a fine random coat
If you have enough space in your fridge, so that the hot tray won't come into contact with anything important, the fridge is the best place to quickly set the chocolate and brittle. Otherwise, it should set fine on the bench, but may take some time.
When the chocolate has mostly set, add another layer of baking paper, and cover the brittle with an upside-down shallow tray.
Turn the tray sandwich over so that the unpainted side of the brittle is facing up.
Remove the layer of baking paper stuck to the brittle and repeat the chocolate painting/ground nut sprinkling step.
Once chilled or set, break up the brittle into random chunks by snapping it with your hands. If this is for public consumption, remember to use gloves.
I find that my trays of brittle fit perfectly into the large multilex sandwich style bags. Once in the bag, with the top folded closed, it is fairly easy to break up the brittle while it is in the bag. You can then leave it in the bag, in the fridge for storage.
If you have kept the brittle at room temperature, you should be able to set out bowls with the brittle for people to pick from. The coating of chocolate will be softer in the heat, but should help protect the brittle from humidity and it should be ok for quite a while.
If you store your brittle in the fridge or freezer, when you serve it at room temperature, water will condense on it over time. The best way to serve it is to set out small amounts in bowls and refill them as they empty. This way you have the optimum freshness and chill for the brittle.