Croccante

Croccante a.k.a. Almond Brittle seen here posing with Silpat®

I wasn’t quite sure which category I should have filed this entry under because while it technically wasn't a disaster, it wasn't quite the success I had hoped for either. Croccante is an Italian confection that is similar to brittle and usually made with almonds and or hazelnuts, it is delicious and highly addictive but should be eaten with caution because it can break your teeth. I only warn you because I love you my bunnies, and because I was made painfully aware of just how close to tooth breaking I came as I was munching happily away on it myself. As luck would have it, I found a recipe that uses butter (which is supposed to make the candy less hard) AFTER I made this batch--oh well.

I had a rare evening to myself on Saturday, the husband was spending the night at our house upstate, checking on things and puttering around with his cars and the little girl was tucked in and fast asleep by 8 pm. I found myself alone on the couch with a glass of wine and a book (what luxury) and a sudden craving for this candy. I have to be honest; I’ve only had it once in my life, a very long time ago, made for me by a distant relative who was visiting from Sicily. Even now the memory of it is fuzzy; I don’t recall seeing her actually make it although I do have a vague image of myself (neatly dressed and so very dainty and ladylike as I always was back then aherm) being ushered out of the kitchen by a concerned adult because the combination of molten hot sugar and my clumsy self was making everyone in the house nervous. Maria’s croccante was a deep rich caramel color, maybe even mahogany deep, but then again I might be remembering it better than it really was, even so, I remember her letting me have a piece once it had cooled enough to be eaten but was still warm to the touch. The combination of the roasted nuts and pure sugar was just heaven to me and I’m pretty sure I begged, bribed and nipped as much of that candy as I could while it was around. So this past Saturday night, when the craving hit, I couldn’t find any reason NOT to make myself a little snacky treat, a small batch just to get a taste and to satisfy my sweet tooth. It really helped that I had all the ingredients on hand so there really was nothing stopping me from taking a little time off from the pressures of my high profile jet setting lifestyle to make myself a little croccante. What a treat!

I found a few recipes on the web and a recipe by Mario Batali on the Recipe Link site which looked really good, except that I didn’t want to make a pound of the stuff. To be honest, I didn’t have enough almonds either; with just over a cup of almonds I really had no choice but to make a small batch. This is the part of the post where I confess that I used the Batali recipe and did some rather ridiculous calculations to “guesstimate” the quantities of almonds, sugar and water that I would need for my batch of croccante. I was way off on the water and ended up with lumps of un-melted sugar as you can see in the photo. I was also really nervous about burning the sugar and setting off the smoke alarm, which would then scare the baby and wake her, which would then make it impossible for me to get her back to sleep for many, many hours, which would then ruin my rare evening of blissful solitude and make me cry, so I pulled the sugar off the burner just after it started to caramelize, but it was too light. I wanted that deep rich color I remembered from childhood but it wasn’t worth the risk of waking the baby. I also didn’t use enough sugar, again my silly calculations were way off, I ended up with something that was more like sugar cement gluing my almonds together rather than my almonds suspended nicely in sugar love. Bah! I think the whole thing was doomed from the beginning but the result was mighty tasty even if it was kind of ugly and a little too brittle. I also have to confess that I ate as much as I could, eating all the outer almonds and scraping my mouth over the candy (how attractive) to get to as many of the inner almonds as I could before tossing the whole thing (OK, ok, before tossing what was left). The sugar had hardened so much it was impossible to bite into and not worth a trip to the dentist. I did a search on the internet after the fact and that’s when I found out that the addition of butter makes the brittle less, well, less brittle. I also found a recipe on the Sicilian Culture website that looked very appealing and one I would like to try, I like the addition of the butter to the mixture and the lemon juice sounds like it would add a nice bright twist to everything. The only thing I would leave out is the vegetable oil, but that is only because I have a Silpat®, which I can’t live without, and can’t recommend enough.

From the Sicilian Culture website:

Croccante (Nut Crunch)

As of this writing I have not actually made this recipe but am posting it here because I don't want to take the chance of the link one day breaking and losing it. Since this is my online cooking journal I'd like to have a record of the recipe just in case I want to make it one day. I'm sure this is a great recipe, and if I do make a batch of croccante from it in the near future I will report back here with the results.

Croccante means "crackling". It is similar to peanut brittle with the exception that this is made from almonds, hazelnuts or whichever nuts you prefer. It is a great and easy gift to make for people around the holidays, particularly Christmas.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 cups blanched whole almonds
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Brush a marble slab or cookie sheet with the oil. Place all the remaining ingredients in a heavy nonstick saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Cook, stirring, for about 15 minutes, or until the syrup has turned a deep caramel color and it’s foamy.

Pour the mixture out onto the oiled slab or cookie sheet, spreading it evenly with the spoon. Let cool completely. When it’s cooled, cut the croccante into rough 1-inch pieces with a heavy knife. Store in airtight jars.

Another Variation :

Equal parts of honey & walnuts, mix/stir up until they are all coated, allow to cook.

Written by Deb on February 28, 2005 01:02 AM