Pimp That Snack

Tomzilla

by Luke Wallis 8 photos Rated 66% 137 votes when voting closed

1. The ingredients of doom!

Raw monkey nuts and redskin peanuts, skinned. 720g in total.
Caster Sugar 1kg
140g Glucose Syrup
Water 5 ounces
Butter, at room temperature 3 ounces
15ml Vanilla Essence

Total cost:
Peanuts: £1.54
Butter: 78p
Caster Sugar: £1.70
Vanilla Essence: Borrowed from the cupboard, free!
Glucose Syrup: £2.80.

A grand total of £6.82.

Ingredients on a wooden table: caster sugar, monkey nuts, redskin peanuts, glucose syrup and a Mr Tom bar

2. After acquiring all the ingredients we skinned the nuts. Skinning nuts was fun…..but began to hurt the fingers after a while. We also roasted the nuts to make them more edible and to make them easier to skin.

Redskin peanuts toasting in a frying pan on the gas hob

3. We buttered a large baking tray; and set it aside. We then smoothed the surface of the tray and laid the nuts on another baking tray.

Kitchen worktop with a tray of skinned peanuts ready and a second greased tray waiting

4. In a large heavy bottomed saucepan we combine the sugar, syrup, water, and butter.

Pouring caster sugar from a jug into a saucepan on the hob

5. We brought to a boil over moderate heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon of demise to dissolve sugar. (Trying to stop it from splashing was annoying)

Sugar and syrup part-melted in the pan, being worked with a wooden spoon

6. Boiled for 3 minutes till it went all brown and tough. The mixture started to go quite tough but then thinned out due to the heat.

The sugar boiled down to a bubbling amber caramel in the saucepan

7. We then poured the caramel over the peanuts on the tray and left it to set!(Trying to pour caramel and taking a picture at the same time is dangerous.)

Pouring hot caramel from the pan over peanuts spread across a baking tray

8. AHA the finished product Tomzilla! (warning contains peanuts.)

Tray-sized slab of set peanut brittle with an ordinary Mr Tom bar in front for scale

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