Category Archives: recipe

Jennifer’s Best Peanut Brittle

If I could make one candy to give away every year, it would be peanut brittle.

This is probably my most miraculous of recipes due to it’s ability to cause sheer happiness in it’s recipients. I’ve actually made friends by sharing this at parties and functions.

Every year someone tells me that this is their favorite peanut brittle recipe, which of course gives me a reason to keep making it for them!

You’ll need a good, heavy saucepan and a candy thermometer for this. If you’ve never owned a candy thermometer, it’s really worth having. I recommend investing a few dollars (a very few, really!) in a good quality thermometer. Glass thermometers are cheap, but they tend to break easily. I have a professional metal candy thermometer that I picked up at a local restaurant supply store, but they’re easy to find online and at other stores with cooking supplies, too.

Peanut Brittle

2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup (Golden Syrup works if you don’t have access to corn syrup)
1/2 cup water
2 cups raw peanuts (I like Spanish peanuts)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon baking soda
real butter for greasing pan

Grease a 10″x15″ baking sheet thoroughly with butter.

Combine first five ingredients (sugar, corn syrup, water, peanuts and salt) in heavy saucepan. Stir using a long-handled wooden spoon.

Boil until candy thermometer reaches 293 degrees F.

Remove from heat and cool for a couple of minutes. Add vanilla and beat. Sprinkle baking soda into the mixture and beat will. It will foam and change colors, which is just what you want it to do!

Immediately pour into baking sheet. Be very, very careful because liquid candy at high temperatures is like lava! Make sure the baking sheet is on a towel or cooling rack because it will be extremely hot.

Allow to cool completely (time will vary, usually an hour or so) then flip over and give it a whack! Break the pieces up however you like, then store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Do not store peanut brittle with other candies because it will absorb moisture and become sticky, sticky, sticky.

For best results, share with friends!

more of my recipes

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Recipe: Bon Bon; Bon Bon

9 Replies

O! Christmas Candy! My house smells like chocolate…and peanut butter…and coconut…and sugar and and… Christmas!

I grew up with my mom making Coconut Bon Bons (which we called Bon Bons) every Christmas. My mom still makes them and it’s one of the candies I make that my friends start asking about in mid-November.

Peanut Butter Bon Bons are a more recent family favorite. My hubby calls them Peanut Butter Cups on Steroids. It’s a fairly apt description of spherical pb and chocolate goodness!

Coconut Bon Bon Filling:

2 pounds (or 7 1/2 cups) of powdered confectioner’s sugar
3 cups coconut
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups of chopped pecans

Chocolate Coating:

12 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 pound of food grade paraffin (optional – but the chocolate will look nicer and hold together better if you use it)

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. The mixture should be firm and hold together. If not, add a little more powdered sugar.

Using a cookie dough scoop, scoop out balls. Round them with your hands and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for about an hour.

Melt the chocolate chips and paraffin in a double boiler over low heat. Using a toothpick or skewer, dip each of the coconut balls into the chocolate and place back on the parchment paper. Let stand to room temperature and store in an airtight container (unless you eat them all first!).

PB Bon Bons Filling:

2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 3/4 cup powdered confectioner’s sugar

Chocolate Coating:

6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/8 pound of food grade paraffin
(if you make Coconut Bon Bons, too, you’ll have plenty of chocolate coating left for these, too)

Mix peanut butter, butter and sugar. It will look crumbly, but it’ll hold together.

Roll into balls place on parchment paper. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Melt the chocolate chips and paraffin in a double boiler over low heat. Using a toothpick or skewer, dip each of the coconut balls into the chocolate and place back on the parchment paper. Let stand to room temperature and store in an airtight container.

Look for more holiday recipes later in the month!

Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post.

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Chocolate Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies

Recipe: Chocolate Saucepan Cookies, a.k.a. Cow Patties

6 Replies

This is one of my mom’s recipes. I can’t even guess how many times she made these chocolatey wonders for my brother, sister and I when we were growing up.

They are amazingly simple, yummy and cheap to make and I love making them for my own family.

One caution for those that like to change recipes and use what you have (as I do!) – you can’t substitute anything for the instant oats or the cookies won’t set properly and you’ll have a gooey mess.

Chocolate Saucepan Cookies
better known as “Cow Patties” or “Mud Cookies”
by my mom, Leona

8 tbs (one stick) butter
1/2 cup milk
2 cups sugar
4 tbs bakers cocoa
3 cups quick-cooking oats (also called instant oats)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter (optional…extra yummy with crunchy!)

In a medium saucepan, bring butter, milk, sugar and coca to a boil. Boil for two minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and immediately add oats, vanilla and peanut butter. Stir well. Drop by 1/4 cup-fulls on to wax paper (an ice cream scoop works well).

Allow to cool completely. The cookies will get firm and lose their shine as they cool.

Store in an airtight container. Try not to eat too many…or you’ll get a tummy ache!

boiling in the saucepan

Enjoy!

Recipe: Autumn Apple Cookies

2 Replies

Sometimes, the best treats are the ones that you never planned to make.

My kids have been under the weather and everyone has been feeling a little low. I wanted to make a treat to bring up the general household spirit, but a quick rummage through the kitchen (and the knowledge that tomorrow is my grocery day!) determined that I had precious little to work with. Among other things, I found a couple of apples and some nuts. Throw that together with some basic baking supplies and Autumn Apple Cookies were born.

Sweet and a little bit fluffy, they hit the spot and made everyone feel just a tiny bit better!

Autumn Apple Cookies
by Jennifer Ofenstein
http://www.sewhooked.org

3/4 cup shortening
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup whole oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup apples, peeled, cored & finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Cream shortening and sugar, add milk. Blend in eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, mix flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to creamed mixture. Stir in vanilla. Fold in apples and nuts.

Drop by teaspoonfuls (or with a cookie scoop) onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool two minutes then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

also posted on cut out + keep

Quilty Tie-In…

While we’re talking apples, how about an apple paper pieced block? It’s zero calories and just as fun to make!

For more patterns, visit Paper Piecing on sewhooked.

Recipe: Brown Banana Recon

1 Reply

I’ve been making this banana bread for years. The fun part about it being that it started as a “real” recipe, but I’ve modified it so much over the years that I eventually gave up on the penciled-over version and typed up my own. My family loves this bread and I hope you’ll like it, too.

My Best Banana Bread
by Jennifer Ofenstein

1/2 c. or 1 stick of butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
3 ripe bananas (the riper, the better!)
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Spray or grease one loaf pan. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.

Cream sugar and butter together. Add eggs one at a time, stirring well after each addition. In another bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Stir into sugar/butter mixture. Stir in ripe bananas, gently mashing them into the bread mixture as you go. If using a mixer, briefly use the lowest setting, making sure not to over-mix; the bananas should be a little lumpy. Stir in nuts.

Bake for 90 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Eat warm, room temp or toasted with butter. Cool completely before storing.

also posted on the LiveJournal Community myflistcooks and cut out + keep