Peanut Brittle... in a Microwave! by Ang

I have a bit of a sweet tooth. I can admit that. Seriously, who doesn't? Everyone has their favorite sweet thing whether it's sugar sweet, fruit sweet, or bittersweet. And we all know that sometimes, you just have to appease that sweet tooth craving.

About a year and a half ago, I satisfied one specific craving on an entirely different level - peanut brittle, and lots of it. I was living in a dinky apartment in Indiana and didn't have much in the ways of pots and pans. But I had a microwave, microwaveable dishes and a Christmas cookie exchange deadline to meet.

So, I went online and searched for something that I could make in my microwave without failing miserably. For those of you that don't know about AllRecipes, you should become familiar. It is an awesome recipe site! I searched for microwaveable sweets and found the perfect recipe of sweet, salty and ridiculously easy to make... and I made about 20 batches.

Microwave Peanut Brittle

INGREDIENTS
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup salted peanuts
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda

Makes 35 servings (but I guess that really depends on how big or small you make the pieces)

DIRECTIONS
1. Butter a cookie sheet (or pizza pan). Combine sugar and corn syrup in a 2 quart glass bowl and microwave on high 4 minutes. Stir in peanuts and microwave on high 3 1/2 minutes more, then stir in butter and vanilla and microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.

2. Stir in baking soda until light and foamy. Pour onto cookie sheet and spread thin. Cool completely and break into pieces and serve.

VARIATIONS
You can certainly change up your nut preference. I made some AWESOME pecan brittle. You could also try almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, etc. Seriously, this was some incredible brittle. And I didn't botch a single batch. It was also quite enjoyed by my fellow Christmas cookie exchangers. Sometimes, you just don't want another cookie.

Another wonderful thing about the AllRecipes site is that you can put in different serving sizes and it will modify the ingredient amounts. Woot! No more guessing... and failing.