Dream in Stitches

Been awhile since I did a nice photo-recipe, so I’ll give it a go! I flipped upon this recipe in the April 2010 issue of Good Housekeeping Magazine. Finally, my annual subscription pays off! I usually have cereal for breakfast, along with some almond butter on a slice of toast. However, it’s messy and not the easiest thing to eat in the car (especially a stick shift). And, I’ll admit it, toast does tend to get a bit boring after awhile. So I saw these, at only 160 calories, and thought I could try it out. The recipe is at the bottom of the page if you’d also like to try it out!

The ingredients are pretty basic, save for the carrots, fruit additive (recipe calls for prunes, I used cranberries) and molasses. Oddly enough I already had molasses for my ginger snap loving family. So I fetched some matchstick carrots and some dried cranberries.

The fats in this recipe is compromised of a tiny tablespoon of veg. oil, and applesauce, which is my favorite fat substitute!

I’ll be the first to admit the batter looks like cat barf. Chunky and moist. The chunkiness makes it REALLY easy to spoon into the 12 muffin cups. It made 12 exactly. You fill them up to the brim, and then they’ll increase in size very slightly. Pop them in at 400 degrees for 23 – 25 minutes (at least that’s what the recipe says, I pulled mine out at 21, because my oven runs a little warm).

A very lovely outcome, visually anyway. The first bite reveals quite a number of things. Number one, chop up the matchstick carrots. Yikes, they were all over the place, and I don’t think they were able to cook thoroughly. This particular part was 90% responsible for my negative first-taste. The other 10% was the blandness. I would add just a touch of white sugar or some more cranberries to sweeten them up a bit. I’ll re-do the recipe and make the proper changes. I have high hopes for a better outcome!

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon(s) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) ground cinnamon
• 1 cup(s) old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats, uncooked
• 1/3 cup(s) nonfat (skim) milk
• 2/3 cup(s) applesauce, unsweetened
• 1/4 cup(s) packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup(s) light (mild) molasses
• 2 tablespoon(s) canola oil
• 1  large egg
• 3  medium carrots, shredded (1.5 cups)
• 1/2 cup(s) prunes, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 12 standard muffin-pan cups or line cups with fluted paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir in oats. In medium bowl, with fork, mix milk, applesauce, brown sugar, molasses, oil, and egg until blended; stir in carrots and prunes. Add applesauce mixture to flour mixture; stir just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy).
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin-pan cups. (Muffin cups will be full.) Bake 23 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Immediately remove muffins from pan. Serve warm, or cool on wire rack to serve later.

When I’m not stitchin’, you can find me lurking in the kitchen! As a thank you to our best friend and extraordinary cat sitter who prefers a salty treat to a sweet treat, I decided to whip up a batch of Peanut Brittle for him. Follow along and you’ll have a quick and GREAT tasting snack!

Please read through at least once before getting started!

1. Calibrate your thermometer

Candy Termo clipped to pan

First, get yourself a nice Candy Thermometer. These things are great, and can be used for deep frying as well as candy making. You’ll want to test your thermometer before you start making the Brittle. THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP! If you don’t test it ahead of time and wait for it to hit 300°F degrees before removing your Brittle from heat, you’ll end up with either BURNED Brittle or STICKY Brittle, neither of which we are aiming for today! Testing it ahead of time will allow you to determine if your thermometer is higher or lower than it should be. Do this by hooking it to the side of a pan with boiling water, shown in the picture. Water will boil at 212°F (Thanks, Mike!). Mine started boiling at about 172°F, so it was off by about 40°.

2. Gather your ingredients

You can work on getting all your ingredients together while you wait for your water to boil. It’s important to get everything ready now because you won’t have any time to measure them out during the Brittle process. Here’s what you’ll want to grab:

1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup corn syrup, 1/4 cup water, pinch of salt

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water
   
• 1 1/2 cup peanuts
   
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

While you’re at it, get your baking sheet ready. Lay down some foil and rub a good layer of butter on it. I say butter over oil spray because the Brittle is going to hold on for dear life, the butter will help its release more than oil spray!

3. Boil water, syrup, sugar and salt

Just beginning to heat up

Bring to a boil your Water, Corn Syrup, Sugar and Salt. It’ll have a very foggy, thick look to it. Stir it real good so that the sugar begins to dissolve. Start it on a medium flame and bring it to a nice boil. When it begins to boil, add in your peanuts and stir them in well. Your temp will drop a bit because you’re adding a cooler substance to the mix, but DO NOT increase your flame! The temp will begin to rise again on its own, don’t worry! This is the step where it is dangerous to walk away. Keep a close eye on your thermometer, and a close nostril on the smell. Most people know the smell of burning sugar, so this is the smell you’ll want to pay attention to. 

4. Get Ready!!

Almost ready!

By now your peanuts are in a nice hot boil and are just about done! They’re getting fragrant right now, too. I was waiting for about 270°F (Remember my water boiled 40° sooner, so I adjusted). If your water boiled at 212°F, wait for about 300°F degrees. HOWEVER, if you smell a hint of burning going on, be it the peanuts or the sugar take it off the burner! Once the pan is off the burner, immediately dump in the slab of butter and baking soda that you measured out earlier. Mix it really well (a rubber spatula works perfectly). It’ll all come together and you’ll get a very hot, but cream mix of Brittle. 

5. Dump it!

As soon as the butter is mixed in well and melted, dump the pan onto the buttered baking sheet you prepared earlier. Take a couple of forks and smooth the batter out as much as you can across the baking sheet. The more you spread, the thinner your pieces will be, so it’s mostly preference as this point. 

Congrats! You’re done! The only thing left is to let it cool for an hour or more, and then break the pieces up. If you want some fun, hold it about 6 inches in the air and just let it drop, it’ll shatter itself into a bunch of pieces. Now enjoy a great homemade peanut brittle!

Finished product, yum!