For as long as I can remember, my mother has made peanut brittle for Christmas gifts to friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
I looked forward to it all year -- it was the tastiest, creamiest, melt-in-your mouth peanut brittle I'd ever had. I couldn't stand the stuff I tried from grocery and candy stores. It was bland and chunky compared to my mom's brittle. Our neighbors would start asking in October if she was making brittle again. They told her she should make it more than once a year, and I agreed.
When I got old enough, she taught me the recipe. Her grandmother came up with it, loosely based on the common version that just about anyone can look up, with a few tweaks she learned after years of experimental confectionery. When I learned to make this delectable candy and gave small cups as gifts to my own friends and co-workers, I got two reactions. The first was "What's the recipe?" and the second was "you should sell this!"
In 2010, I got even more impassioned pleas for the same, due to two congruent changes. First, after years of making the recipe, I grew courageous enough to play around with it. My first step was to switch to vegetarian ingredients (sugar in the USA can be refined through animal bone char unless it is labeled organic, vegan, or dehydrated cane juice) and the second was to see if I could make a peanut-allergy free version.
"Peanut free peanut brittle? That's ridiculous!" You may say. But I already had played with using tree nuts, and the almond and macadamia nut brittle turned out well, so all I had to do was find something that tasted good and was a low allergy risk (nothing can be considered a zero allergy risk, as any food will have someone in the world who reacts to it, but I look to avoid the most common, and most severe allergens).
I tried sunflower seeds. It was edible, but not very delicious, and messy. I thought about soy nuts and ruled against it before even making the attempt. Everything else I had heard of was a tree nut. Finally, I struck gold: pumpkin seeds! You can buy them shelled, usually with the label "raw pepitos," at natural food stores. I made a batch and it was ok, but tasted a bit off to me. Daunted, I took a break and curled up with a piece of pumpkin pie. Instantly, I knew what was missing -- this needed to be pumpkin pie brittle, not just pumpkin seed brittle!
After ruining two experimental batches, I had it! Using pumpkin seeds as the "nut," and sugar pumpkin, as well as carefully portioned spices, for flavor, I had my unique, nut-free brittle.
You can imagine the reaction. Now the recipe requests have doubled.
Revealing the family recipe was out of the question, but after mulling it over for a year I came up with a compromise I would make and sell for a worthy charity, listing the ingredients individually in alphabetical order. 90% of the secret to the recipe is proportions, temperatures and cooking methods, so my mother and I agreed that giving up the secret other 10% was worth it to help a good cause.
The first charity to earn my special brittles is Peace Abbey at 2 N Main St Sherborn, MA 01770. They are more than deserving, and I feel it is my privilege to get to debut my brittles there. If you are local to the area, you can send me a request through Blogger, Facebook, or by asking Dot Walsh at the phone or email listed on the Peace Abbey "Contact Us" to pass on the message. Around the December holidays I bring in a big batch to sell, but I can't do this year round, so it's by advance order, to be picked up at Peace Abbey, in return for a donation to Peace Abbey.
Last updated: 21 Feb. 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment