Crunchy and delicious vegan peanut brittle. This fabulous homemade brittle is slightly salty, packed with peanuts and wonderful as a dessert.
Making peanut brittle is remarkably similar to making vegan honeycomb.
You most definitely need to own a sugar thermometer to get the job done right.
And it’s a bit of stirring work, hot stirring work – you’re working with boiling sugar after all. And you definitely need to have ALL your ingredients and dishes and anything else ready before you start. Once that sugar is bubbling away you have no time to do anything other than stir like crazy.
But wow, it’s worth it! And other than some frantic stirring, as long as you have a sugar thermometer (I’ll say it again – you gotta!) it’s pretty easy.
The result is a peanut flavored honeycomb textured dream dessert. Isn’t it awesome to be able to make your own candy?
And if you like homemade candy, check out our fabulous vegan toffee.
How To Make Vegan Peanut Brittle
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
This peanut brittle recipe is a simple ingredient mix of sugar, golden syrup or corn syrup (I used golden, I love the flavor), salt, water, peanuts (salted – the sweet and salty thing is a total winner here), vegan butter and baking soda.
Simple ingredients, a simple recipe and an outstandingly delicious result.
The hardest part is stirring vigorously so the sugar mix doesn’t burn. You just need to get that boiling sugar mix to the right temperature on your candy thermometer.
And then it’s just a case of whipping it off the heat, stirring in the baking soda and vegan butter and pouring it quickly out onto a baking sheet (sprayed with non-stick spray) and spreading it as thin as you can as fast as you can. It’s really that easy.
Let it set in the fridge and when set, break it up into pieces and serve!
Storing and Freezing
Keep it stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 6 weeks! It can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
More Delicious Candy Recipes
- Vegan Chocolate Bark
- Vegan Peppermint Bark
- Vegan Chocolate Truffles
- Vegan Crunch Bars
- Vegan Peppermint Fudge
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Peanut Brittle
Ingredients
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- ½ cup Golden Syrup (120ml) or Corn Syrup
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- ¼ cup Water (60ml)
- 1 cup Salted Peanuts (150g)
- 2 Tablespoons Vegan Butter (30g)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
Instructions
- Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray and set aside.
- Measure out the peanuts, vegan butter and baking soda and set aside for easy access later.
- Place the sugar, syrup, salt and water into a heavy bottomed pot. Turn the heat to medium high (about 1 less than maximum, so if it goes to 6, turn it up to 5) and heat, stirring all the while, until the sugar is completely dissolved and and beginning to boil.
- Set up your sugar thermometer and add the peanuts. Stir vigorously until the mixture reaches 300°F, the hard crack stage. Immediately remove from the heat and stir in the vegan butter and baking soda. Work quickly here as the mixture will want to start setting, so speed is important. When you add the baking soda the mix will bubble up, so be very careful.
- Immediately transfer the mixture to the baking sheet. Use a spatula or two forks pulling from opposite ends to try and spread the mixture out as far as possible so you get a nice thin candy.
- Place into the fridge to cool and when cold, place the bottom of a knife onto the candy and lightly tap the knife with a hammer, cracking the candy gently into pieces.
Notes
- Keep it stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 6 weeks!
- It can also be frozen for up to 3 months.
Made this holiday treat for my vegan family. It is so good. Just had to be a bit more patient as we are at high altitude and it takes a bit longer for the brittle to reach 300°. Ended up making an extra batch.
Thank you so much for sharing and for your lovely review!
This turned out marvelous! I used earth balance butter and pecans instead of peanuts. I used to make the real thing every holiday season and now have dairy allergies and I’ve missed it so much. Thanks for bringing back one of my holiday favorites to me!
Yummy! Thank you so much for sharing and for your wonderful review Tracey!
Delicious and easy! About 15 minutes, start to finish. I only had roasted peanuts so I added them at 250 degrees to keep them from burning. I also put my cookie sheet in the oven (on warm) to give me a little more time to spread it out (keeping the brittle warm), took it out just before the 300 degree mark. Lovely recipe, thank you!
Thanks for the wonderful review and great tips Jane!
Delicious brittle that was easy to make! Thank you.
Thanks Erica!
I used to make this with my mom every Christmas when I was a kid. We gave it to all the school teachers in decorated coffee tins as well as relatives and friends! She learned it from her grandmother. The trick is to get it really thin so that it easily breaks. We put on those yellow kitchen gloves, rubbed a ton of butter all over the cleaned formica kitchen counters as well as our gloves and after mom poured it out on the counter we’d get to work one on each side and grab the ends and pull every which way buttering our gloves frequently! We’d work all around the outside until that was stretched thin then keep moving towards the middle (which was still hot and soft) a bit at a time! Oh and she always used raw Virginia peanuts, nothing else would do! Everyone loved hers the best because it was so thin and delicate and the raw nuts gave it a wonderful flavor! She did a spiced cashew variety too in later years but I always liked the original best! I haven’t made it in years but maybe this year!
What a lovely memory! And a spiced cashew brittle sounds wonderful too. Thanks for sharing!
Can I make this with cashews ?
Sure! 🙂
I made this brittle a couple years ago for the first time and my mother has requested it every year since! 3rd year going strong! thank you so much for the recipe!!
I made this using beet sugar instead of white sugar and it worked fine
Thanks for sharing Rachael! 🙂
Can I use coconut sugar instead of white sugar?
I haven’t tried it, but I think it would work. 🙂
Would this recipe work without baking soda? What does it do?
It might, but that’s untested by me. The baking soda gives it a more delicate texture and creates air bubbles. It’s sort of a bit like honeycomb, very delicious.
How long does this last? Thanks!
If you keep it in the fridge in an airtight container then at least 2 weeks and likely longer. 🙂
Nice recipe, we enjoyed it thanks.
Great! Thanks Tony! 🙂