Beer Brittle

Continuing the celebration of American Craft Beer Week, I decided to make something sweet using our homebrewed Weizenbier.  It has a nice citrusy flavor and a strong scent, so I thought it would hold up its flavor.  Truth be told, I wanted to use our IPA, but I burned the first batch beyond saving and I couldn’t find another bottle in our house.  We have our stash of home brews in the basement somewhat organized, but I couldn’t remember which group was the IPA and the husband wasn’t home to help.  I did print out beer labels, but alas, on the printer they still sit.  A project for another time!  I think the Weizenbier worked.  It worked well enough that I used it for a second batch at least!  I think I’d like to play around with this recipe even more in the future.  Perhaps with different beers and additives like diced jalapenos, bacon, cashews, cayenne pepper, etc.

I found this recipe on a great new (to me) site called The Homebrew Chef.  Chef Sean has some great recipes, and I have bookmarked a few others to try in the future.  His site had a mention in this latest issue of Food & Wine, which is how I found it.  They had a nice article on American Craft Beers.  You can read it here!

Beer Peanut Brittle, adapted from The Homebrew Chef

makes about 2 pounds of candy

1/2 cup unsalted butter, good quality (I used Plugra)

1/2 cup IPA or citrusy wheat beer

2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup toasted, salted peanuts

Lightly grease a baking sheet with butter or use a silicon mat and set aside.

In a large saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, beer and salt.  Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Bring to a boil and cook to a hard crack stage, 300 degrees F.  Remove from heat and stir in peanuts.  Quickly pour onto prepared cookie sheet.  Let cool to room temperature, then crack into pieces.  Store in air tight container.

If you don’t feel like cooking, you can head over to the Chicago area’s confectioner, Truffle Truffle.  I recently gave their beer & pretzel brittle and chocolate-covered beer marshmallows a try.  They use Rogue’s chocolate stout for their creations.  I did think it paired nicely with the marshmallows, but I would prefer something stronger for the brittle, as I didn’t feel that the taste of the beer really came through.  Overall they were tasty treats though, and I love to try new and local products whenever possible!