So… I accidentally remelted my peanut brittle

[jtucci21]

It was my first time making peanut brittle and I did it without a thermometer. There's a chance I undercooked the brittle in the first place since it didn't really get super brittle, but it wasn't chewy either. Then came the catastrophe…

The broken and bagged brittle was sitting on my oven and a roommate cut it on without taking the bag off the top. I know I shouldn't have left it there but there's not much I can say to that. So now it's kind of half melted, chewy, but impossible to break apart. Can I melt it back down again and start over or will I risk ruining the structure of the sugar?

Thank you for your help!

 

[smlewis00]

Honestly I think you will have to start over and buy fresh. I do not think you can melt it back down again and start over. I think that will mess up the sugar too much and it will not work the way you want. I could be wrong but I really don't think you would be able to use it. I'm sorry. Best of luck.

 

[jtucci21]

Aww, poo. I'll just take it as a lesson learned. Out of curiosity, what do you think would be messed up with the sugar? Would it just not set as well into the brittle? Thanks for the advice!

 

[smlewis00]

I think unfortunately this is just one of those foods that if you don't get it right the first time, you have to start over. I know, not fair! But I'm also not entirely sure thats true!
Corn syrup is a different kind of sugar from regular table sugar-so when you super saturate the stuff, then the slightest shake or stir or the tiniest of crystals forming or dropping into the mixture for any reason will cause the whole thing to crash and fall out of its solution. So I'm curious what kind of sugar did you use?
Is there anyway to break your failed brittle up and use it as a topping on a cake or ice cream? I know you said it was kind of chewy so that may not work-but I was trying to think of alternatives to just throwing it out.
I don't know for fact that reheating it wont work. If you plan to throw it out, maybe it's worth a shot to try and reheat it and see if you can melt it. Just be careful not to burn it. I say if your going to toss it anyway, maybe just try to re-heat. Worst case scenerio it doesnt work. Even then, you were going to throw it out anyway.
Wish I could be more of a help!
Best of luck to ya!

 

[Becky]

I've remelted sugar before without any problem - when I made some blue rock candy for a Breaking Bad party I didn't get the temperature high enough and it was chewy. I remelted it to a higher temperature and it was fine once it had set! Even the blue colour was ok, which was a relief.

However, remelting peanut brittle could be tricky because of the peanuts - I'd be worried they'd burn

 

[OhioTom76]

What type of bag did you have it in? If it was in a plastic bag and got heated inside it, I might consider tossing it, in case some of the chemicals from the plastic leeched into the brittle.

I suppose another option would be to cut off some small pieces and maybe coat them with some melted chocolate to make some candy.

If it does melt down well enough, perhaps you could make some popcorn balls with it, or some home made Crunch & Munch.

 

[jlynn71]

I made peanut brittle before but used corn syrup. I do often make fudge, which I know is soft-ball stage sugar. I would think if you try to reheat it, it will turn out gritty. This would not happen with corn syrup because of its consistency, I think.