Allspice Macadamia Brittle

Most people’s new year resolutions revolve on losing weight or going to the gym. This year I vowed to experiment more with candy making. Don’t judge the life of a person with a baking blog hobby.  I probably should take an actual candy making class instead of improvising on the weekends, but who has time for that these days?

Last holiday season, I accidentally overdid it buying Allspice. So as a result I’ve been trying to work it it to different creations when I can like Allspice Fall Leaves Meringues and Cranberry Cream Cheese filled Allspice French macarons.

Snow-bound this past weekend beside a roaring fire, thoughts turned to warming flavors so I took one of the three jars of allspice I have out of the cabinet for a candy test drive. My first attempt was at allspice caramels. I over cooked the candy and they turned out hard as a rock. Big. Fail. However, this gave me the idea to switch to a brittle. Most people would have stuck with the caramels and then moved onto the brittle but I have candy making ADD.

Ever since I made my first brittle, a Red Velvet Cashew version for Valentines day, I was hooked on how easy it is to do. 

A unique flavored brittle deserves a unique nut to pair with it so I busted out a bag of raw macadamias I’d been saving for a rainy day. This came together very easily and the taste is unique and wonderful. The deep flavor of the allspice brittle beautifully complements the creamy nutty macadamia flavor. When packaged prettily, this elegant pairing makes a great gift idea.

(Barely adapted from Stresscake’s Spicy Peanut Brittle)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup corn syrup
• 1+1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 tablespoons allspice powder
• 2 cups unsalted raw macadamia nuts roughly chopped

Directions:

• Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray.
• Place water, sugar and corn syrup in a heavy bottomed sauce pan and heat without stirring until the mixture reaches the hard crack sate (about 302 degrees F)
• In the meantime, assemble all the rest of the ingredients, place  near a  trivet next to the baking sheet along with a heatproof spatula.
• When the sugar mixture is hot enough, remove the pan from the heat and place on the trivet. Stir in the rest of the ingredients quickly.
• Pour onto the parchment paper and using the spatula, flatten out and shape into a rectangle if you like.
• Let cool completely. When the brittle has become hard, break into pieces.