Go Back
Print

Salted Cacao Nib Brittle

Closely adapted from Peter Greweling
Course Dessert
Cuisine Candy
Keyword brittle, cacao nib
Author TheSpicedLife

Ingredients

  • 1 lb (2 cups) sugar
  • 4 oz (1/2 cup) water
  • 12 oz (1 cup) light corn syrup
  • 4 oz (1 cup) cacao nibs
  • 1 t fine sea salt
  • 1 oz (2 T) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 t vanilla
  • 1 1/2 t baking soda
  • coarse grey sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. Place a piece of parchment paper larger than the pan over a half sheet baking pan (see notes above). Lightly oil an offset spatula/palette knife.
  2. Combine the sugar, water and corn syrup in a 4 qt heavy sauce pan. bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a heat-proof rubber spatula or wooden spoon. When it boils, reduce the heat to medium and cover for 4 minutes.
  3. After the 4 minutes, remove the lid and insert a candy thermometer into the sugar. Do not stir. Let it boil and cook until it reaches a temperature of 240 F. Add the cacao nibs at this point and cook, stirring constantly, until the temperature reaches 320. The color at this point will be light amber.

  4. At 320 F, remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the butter, salt, vanilla and baking soda. Working quickly but carefully, pour the brittle onto your prepared pan. Spread it some with the oiled knife. Within moments it will slow to sludge. At that point, remove the parchment from the pan so that you can spread the brittle out even further. When it starts to resist and get sticky and stringy at the edges, stop and sprinkle with coarse grey sea salt (to taste--it's optional). Let cool completely before breaking into irregular pieces.