"Steve Wertz" wrote in message
...
There was a rash of recommendations a few weeks ago about Jalapeno
brittle. Being the adventurous cheapskate that I am, I decided to
undertake a mission to make my own. Besides, I've never seen it
for sale, even in Texas.

Conclusion: Fresh Jalapeno cannot safely be imbedded into peanut
brittle.

When you add the chopped fresh jalapeno, it will dry out and burn.
The temperature of the sugar immediately drops 20F-30F when you
add the peppers, and by the time the sugar comes back up to the
required 290F-300F, the peppers have dried out and scorched,
leaving a bitter taste.

If you add them at the very end of the cooking time, you get
runny, un-crunchy brittle that only lasts a couple days at best
before it starts to taste moldy/mildewy.

The only way I've found to make a hot-sweet brittle is to add
ground flakes at the very end of cooking, just as you add the
butter. The flavor doesn't distribute as well, so make it pretty
fine. This is an fairly acceptable trade-off. You don't get the
flavor of fresh peppers though, only the heat. I currently have
my second batch of Thai red pepper brittle.

I found all sorts of recipes out there, and now I know why.
Because there isn't a single recipe that really works. One recipe
even said to boil sliced jalapeno's in a cup of water, then throw
out the japs and just use the water. Totally bogus, IMO.

Anybody ever made it successfully with fresh peppers? I'm open to
more suggestions, but I'm unlikely to try them unless you can
vouch that it really works :-)

-sw

Dunk them in a little liquid Nitrogen --they'll get brittle.

Lefty
--
Life is for learning
The worst I ever had was wonderful