Thursday, January 29, 2015

Honey Roasted Peanuts


My husband loves honey roasted peanuts, so I set out to make this one for him. Store-bought honey roasted peanuts are not cheap, and full of so many other additives, I just knew I could probably make them at home better and less expensively. Additionally I control what's in them and there are no other ingredients except peanuts, honey, sugar and salt.

That's not to say this was not without challenges wouldn't be true, however once it all comes together, you just really need to work quickly to insure you don't have one, big, stuck together blob of peanuts. Once that's mastered, these are easy and delicious.

Ingredients
1 lb. organic peanuts
1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt



Method
Preheat your oven to 300. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine sugar and the salt in a large metal bowl.

Heat honey in a large skillet over high heat until boiling. Continue cooking for two minutes. Remove from heat and add the peanuts to the saucepan, stirring quickly to ensure that all of the peanuts get coated with honey.

Quickly transfer the honey coated peanuts to the bowl containing the sugar and salt and using a strong spoon, quickly mix until the peanuts are well coated and practically all of the sugar and salt is on the peanuts.

Place the peanuts on the two baking sheets. Break apart as much as possible with a wooden spoon. It is alright if some clusters remain, but try to separate them as much as possible.

Place the baking sheets in the oven for 20 minutes, stirring every five to ten minutes. Each time you stir, try to redistribute the peanuts to a single layer. Remove from the oven and stir again. These will cool down very quickly, so here's where you need to work quickly.

Transfer peanuts to parchment paper laid out on your kitchen counter top. Let cool some and break apart into individual pieces.

Store in an airtight container (I used a quart mason jar) at room temperature for up to two weeks.

Enjoy,
Mary