Muriel’s Peanut Brittle

Driving the church van, I got to know some wonderful people who rode to worship on Sunday mornings.    Hazel Olson was one, who gave me the cookie cutter that I used this week to make my grandmother’s date cookies.  These are a date-filled soft Christmas cookie that is easy to make and store well over the Christmas holidays.

Long after Hazel no longer rode the van, I met Muriel Kinne.  By then I was making jams and jellies and sharing them with riders who were interested.  The week before  Christmas Muriel said that I should stop to pick up the empty jars.

When Jerri and I went to visit,  Muriel showed us photos and shared some memories about her life and work.  We learned that she really liked our pastor and that she kept up on current news.   Before we left with the jars, she gave us a container filled with peanut brittle that she had been making for Christmas for many years.

I told her that I loved peanut brittle but was afraid to try to make it.  Her response: “It’s easy.  Even an old woman can make it!”

Muriel died at the age of ninety-five.  She was a wonderful lady whom we remember every Christmas when I make peanut brittle that tastes just like the delicious candy that she used to make.

Here is the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup water

2 cups raw peanuts

1/2 tsp. salt

2 T butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. baking soda

PROCEDURE:

Heat and stir the sugar, syrup and water in a heavy three-quart saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Add the salt and mount a candy thermometer on the side of the pan.  While the candy is cooking, butter a 12 by 19” jelly roll pan and make sure that the butter, vanilla and soda are ready to add when the candy reaches the hard crack stage.

Cook over medium heat to about 250º.  Add the peanuts and cook to the hard crack stage (300º), stirring often. 

Remove the pan from the heat and quickly stir in the butter, vanilla and soda. Beat to a froth for a few seconds. Pour the candy at once into the well-buttered pan, spreading with a spatula. You can also shake the pan gently from side to side to help spread the candy, but be careful as the candy is very hot.  Break it into pieces after it is cold.

This makes about one and one-half pounds of peanut brittle.

To make about two pounds of candy, increase the ingredients as follows

3 cups sugar

1 1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 1/4 cup water

3 cups raw peanuts

1 tsp. salt

3 T butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1 T baking soda

NOTE:  This keeps forever as long as you hide it from people addicted to peanut brittle.

Mrs. Oblander’s Date Pudding

We first had this date pudding at my oldest brother-in-law’s home in Medicine Lodge, Kansas.  His mother-in-law, Mrs. Oblander, was visiting and impressed us all with this dessert one day.  Here is her date pudding recipe, which Jerri copied on a piece of note paper and noted that it was  “Easy/good.”  She was right.  It is extraordinarily easy to make and the nuts and dates combine to make a delicious dessert.

This is a very sweet and rich pudding, so make the first servings small and offer seconds.

INGREDIENTS:

For the pudding:

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups hot water
1 cup white sugar
1 cup English or black walnuts
1 cup dates
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/8 tsp. salt

For the topping:
1 cup chilled whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 T sugar
Dash of salt

PROCEDURE:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Dissolve the brown sugar in the hot water and pour it into a 9” x 13” cake pan.  Allow the syrup to cool while you prepare the batter.  Chop the nuts and dates and put them into a mixing bowl.  Sift the baking powder, salt, sugar and flour over the nuts and dates and stir together.  Add the milk and mix well.  Drop the batter by spoonfuls into the syrup and bake for about 45 minutes.

Make the whipped cream after the pudding is out of the oven.  Put the cream in a chilled bowl and beat with a mixer or whisk until it starts to thicken.  Add the sugar, vanilla and salt and continue beating until the cream forms soft peaks.  You can test for this stage by stopping the mixer and lifting it out of the cream.  If the cream makes peaks that curl over at the top, you have the right consistency.  Be careful not to beat the cream too long or you will get butter.   Serve the warm pudding topped with a generous spoonful of whipped cream.

NOTE:  We think that this pudding is better when made with black walnuts but it is good with English walnuts too.