macadamia nut brittle

macadamia nut brittle

• 27 Jan 2014

It's the Australia Day holiday here today and I thought about bringing you something very Australian like lamingtons or pavlova. Instead I've gone a little lateral to bring you macadamia nut brittle. This was on my list of Christmas candies but I just ran out of time so here it is, better late than never.



Did you know the macadamia nut is native to Australia? Growing up in Brisbane we had a macadamia nut tree in our back yard. I don't ever remember using them in cooking but I used to love cracking the nuts open with a brick. Thankfully these days they're available at my local shops already shelled and good to go.



The recipe is based on this one I found with a few tweaks. 



Macadamia Nut Brittle
150 g coarsely chopped unroasted macadamia nuts
pinch salt
heaped ½ teaspoon bicarb soda
½ teaspoon water
½ teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup water
½ cup light corn syrup
25 g butter

Heat the oven to 180°C. Place the nuts on an oven tray and cook for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Lightly sprinkle the nuts with salt and set to one side.

Line a 7 x 11 inch tin with baking paper; spread the nuts evenly over the paper and keep warm in the oven.

In a small bowl, mix the bicarbonate of soda with the ½ teaspoon water, the ½ teaspoon vanilla and set to one side.

Mix the sugar, the ¼ cup water and the corn syrup in a large saucepan. Cook over a medium heat stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Continue cooking until the mixture turns a light golden brown. 

Immediately remove from the heat and quickly add the bicarb mixture and the butter. The mixture will foam up.Tilt the saucepan from side to side about 10 times to incorporate the butter then pour the toffee mixture over the nuts; quickly spread about 1/4 inch thick. 

Cool completely, at least 1 hour before breaking into pieces. Store in an airtight container.



The brittle was easy to make and even easier to eat. Once again I managed to polish off most of the brittle without much help at all.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekends. 

See you all again next week,

Jillian