Passionate Homemaking

My Papa is a big peanut brittle fan so I like to make him a batch of it for Christmas. The problem is that most recipes for peanut brittle are based around corn syrup. I prefer to avoid this ingredient, so my goal this year was to make my own peanut brittle from natural sweeteners. I am hear to announce that I have been successful. Thanks to the inspiration of this recipe and some further tweaking and adapting, I am excited to share this yummy candy treat with you. This is another great gift idea that is simple, delicious and more healthy for you.

1 cup Sucanat/rapadura
1/4 cup honey (I am sure you could use maple syrup here if desired)
1/4 cup water
1 cup peanuts, raw or salted as desired
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Grease a large cookie sheet. Set aside.

2. In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, over medium heat, bring sucanat, honey, and water to a boil. Stir until sucanat is dissolved. Bring to a boil and add coconut oil and vanilla, stirring constantly until mixture reaches 280F on the candy thermometer. If you don’t have a candy thermometer (like me!), then you want to have a cold glass of water nearby and drop a bit of the mixture into it every few minutes until it forms a stiff ball in the water. This will confirm that it is hot enough.

3. Add peanuts and continue stirring until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), or for another 2 minutes or so, or until a small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into hard and brittle threads.

4. Remove from heat and quickly stir in baking soda. Work quickly and pour at onto cookie sheet, spreading out with the spoon to form a thin layer in a rectangle shape. Cool and then break candy into pieces. It takes about 10-15 minutes to cool. Store in a covered container.

This post is a part of the Healthy Holiday Eats and Treats Carnival! Check it out!

Need a simple easy treat to give away this holiday? How about some delicious healthy fudge that is incredibly easy to assemble? I adapted this recipe from Kimi’s edition of healthy fudge. I don’t use coconut sugar, so I had to do some experimenting to use with honey. I used raw honey to sweeten and it is a delicious combination of three simple ingredients -cocoa powder, coconut oil, and honey! Whip it up in your blender and solidify in the fridge, and you are set! This is a great little nutritious gift idea for him or her (especially the guys!) and also an very easy dessert for guests. I have served it several times over the last few months and always received great reviews.

1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup coconut oil, divided (virgin unrefined coconut oil is recommended for its nutritional value), palm oil or butter
3/4 cup honey (raw honey is recommended again for its nutritional value)

Gently melt half of the coconut oil in a small saucepan. Allow too cool slightly. Place the remaining 1/2 cup solid coconut oil in your blender with the cocoa and honey. Carefully add the melted coconut oil and pulse a few times till smooth. Make sure not to over blend or else it can seperate. Line a bread pan with a layer of parchment paper or saran wrap. Carefully pour the fudge into the pan. Place in your refrigerator until solid, about 1 hour. Gently remove from pan and cut into squares. Makes about 12-15 squares. Store in refrigerator till ready to serve.

Note: I found that if I melted all the coconut oil, the final result was a very stretchy, wet fudge. For the more solid fudge like texture, I melt half of the oil, just enough so that it blends together well, and this seems to work perfectly.

I absolutely love vanilla extract! Talk about a fun, easy and delicious homemade gift idea! Organic vanilla extract can be quite spendy at the store, and with these cute jars you cannot go wrong in blessing family and friends and your own kitchen cupboard. I made 6 (4 oz bottles) this last weekend and they are steeping away nicely in my cupboard ready for Christmas baskets. Here’s how I did it:

Supplies:

6 Vanilla Beans
6 (4 oz jars)
24 oz. vodka

I purchased the vanilla beans and recycled glass cork top bottles from Mountain Rose Herbs. The vanilla beans are sold by the 1 oz (which is 6-9 beans) for $9.00, making it about $1-1.50 per bean. The jars were $1.60 each. I purchased the vodka at my local liquor store for $10 for 750 ml (which I figured out is about 26 oz). So you are looking at less than $5 per 4 oz jar, compared to easily double that amount at your local health food store. And with reusable glass jars, you can save even more with future batches (if you are making it for yourself, that is). The beans smelled fabulous! I cut them down the center with scissors and then into 2 inch pieces and put them in the jars. I then filled each jar with vodka and put the top on! That’s it! You must steep them for 8 weeks. Once you have used half the jar, you can refill the jar to the top with more vodka to stretch it even more! Make sure to make a note of this when you send it for gifts. You can also save room to sweeten with a 3/4 tsp of rum per bottle after it has steeped.

You can also use this recipe and steep them altogether, but since I was in a rush getting them ready for Christmas, I chose to steep them individually, so I could send them on their way.

Aren’t they adorable? I just have to make a cute little label tag to go with them! That’s more natural living on a budget for you!