Christmas Candy
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One of the holiday traditions my parents started many years ago, was making Peanut Brittle for giving to family and friends. Over the years they perfected their recipe, which was passed on to them from a friend. Each year their giving became more generous and one year they made over 100 bags of Peanut Brittle during the Christmas season, which was over 40 pounds of raw spanish peanuts. Friends they had gifted it to, began asking to buy it to give as gifts. My folks were not in it to make money or run a candy business, so they just told people to pay for the ingredients and they made it for them. Of course Mom and Dad always under estimated the actual cost of the ingredients, and gave away much more than they were paid to make. As they got older, keeping up with that type of volume became a little much for them. I began taking my kids over and helping out. I lost my Mom and Dad both in 2020. Dad was 91 and Mom was 87. A few months after Mom passed, my Dad asked me “do you suppose we could make some Peanut Brittle this year?” I told him sure and meant it whole heartedly. My dad passed away before Christmas. I kept my promise to him. I got together with my wife and sons to make sure we carried on the tradition and Dad’s wishes that year. Everyone in our family had the “recipe”, but you all know the process and “how to” is as important as the ingredients in any recipe. Candy making can be even more unforgiving than meat processing. I was blessed to have spend many days in my parents kitchen making this sugary Peanut delight. Buy the way, this brittle is not hard or sticky if made right. One of my nieces and a nephew asked if I would show them how to make the brittle last year. They helped me and my family carry out Dads wishes to make it last year. This year they asked me at Thanksgiving when we were making it this year. Well today was that day, or should I say the first day. I had my brother and his family together with mine learning and carrying on what Mom and Dad had made into a Christmas tradition. A few years ago my Mom put together a cook book for all of her kids and grandkids with a photo of them making Peanut Brittle one of the many years. It’s the best cookbook I own and the first picture I’m attaching is of them on the cover doing what they loved doing.
Making brittle today to send out of state to family.
The pot is an old pressure cooker my Mom used to make brittle and other candies. The spoon was hers also.
So if you have a certain candy you make or other great cooking tradition you have during this holiday season, post it proudly. Merry Christmas! -
GWG8541 great story! I miss my grandma. We used to make things together. She is the one who I made my deer bologna with when I was growing up. We also made hard tack at Christmas time
Randie N Grandmas are awesome. I like a good hard tack.
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My dad made divinity every Christmas. Half of it he put in black walnuts which no one else could stand. That way he always had more than enough for himself!
marzig20 smart man, but I would have destroyed the Divinity with or without the Back Walnuts.
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johnsbrewhouse
A local guy makes spicy brittle. Really the brittle is out of this world amazing! I need to find a good recipe to try it out this year. Last year it was pretty expensive for a little batch.maria johnsbrewhouse I’ll give the spicy batch a try when I get a good idea how much to add to my recipe. I am going to make another batch with bourbon soon. The last one was a little to subtle for my taste.
“You never really die until you end up on the wall at a Cracker Barrel”
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maria johnsbrewhouse I’ll give the spicy batch a try when I get a good idea how much to add to my recipe. I am going to make another batch with bourbon soon. The last one was a little to subtle for my taste.
GWG8541 I tried to find mom’s brittle recipe this morning and seems I put it somewhere, probably in one of her cookbooks. I know my brother has it, but when I get his jalapeno brittle recipe, I’ll share it here.
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Before my dad passed away, my folks would make homemade chocolate covered cherries for Christmas. After eating them, store bought ones aren’t very good
kyle that was another favorite that my mom made. I have tried them solo yet. As a kid, that was probably my favorite candy Mom made at Christmas.
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I am sorry to hear about your parents, though I love how you are keeping the tradition going. I have been making “Hickory Farms-ish” baskets for friends and family for the past several years that include summer sausage, kielbasa, smoked cheese, smoked almonds (3 flavors), homemade mustard, fudge, and a random candy (whatever I feel like making - last year it was a cayenne caramel on a bacon-pretzel crust). After reading some of these posts, maybe I should limit my scope a little. lol I too, but them in a cookbook for the kids so maybe they will pick this up too (or some of the easier recipes). Nothing brings joy more than homemade goodies! Thank you for such a great post.
rjsenk definitely write it down, and be detailed for them. If I wouldn’t have helped my parents several years making the peanut brittle, I probably wouldn’t make it. There are to many little techniques and intricacies that affect the outcome. I had Moms basic recipe, but there was so much not put to paper because she had done it so much. Videos are a great way to document for them as well.
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I have been documenting everything I do any more when making new things (mustards, pickles, pickled Brussels Sprouts, etc…) so I can eventually end up with a reproducible product that everyone can enjoy time and time again. I probably ruined 20 lbs of almonds before I ended up with a recipe that I loved and could reproduce without fail.
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GWG8541 My brother does jalapeno brittle, I can’t take the heat like he does. He does lots of weird stuff. I know my mom would probably look at him and ask him what he thought he was doing to her brittle.
johnsbrewhouse That sounds really interesting. I understand, I can’t take it like I used to either, but we still eat a lot of peppers because we do like the spice & the flavor. That could be real interesting mixed with the sweet, so long as it is not overdone. I would like to learn more about it.
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johnsbrewhouse That sounds really interesting. I understand, I can’t take it like I used to either, but we still eat a lot of peppers because we do like the spice & the flavor. That could be real interesting mixed with the sweet, so long as it is not overdone. I would like to learn more about it.
calldoctoday I probably talk to my brother tomorrow and get his recipe. I have to catch him at home. He is suppose to be retired but took on contract work from a former contractor who worked for him and begged him to repair some IT and computer problems that he only seems to know how to repair.
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