Not your momma's peanut brittle

I fell in seriously in love with Taiwan’s sweets practically from the moment I stepped off the plane. Peanut candy soon became one of the pillars of my diet. 

Part of the appeal was the lowered level of sweetness, as maltose is often used in place of part of the sugar. The other source of this lifelong addiction was the flavor and crispness of Taiwan’s peanuts, which are insanely good.

Penghu, or the Pescadores Islands, as they used to be called—Portuguese fishermen sailing around in Chinese waters just wasn’t that long ago, was it?—is an archipelago of about 90 isles scattered in the Taiwan Straits, right between Taiwan and Fujian. It also happens to be home to some of the greatest peanuts in the world. Yes, they are a bit on the small side, but these red-skinned wonders are worth seeking out.

Maltose

I’ve played a bit with tradition here and come up with something that works wonderfully as a bar snack. Instead of the usual sweetness and light of regular old school Chinese peanut brittle, I’ve made this a whole lot zippier. These can be seriously addictive chile bombs if you can get your hands on good quality peanuts seasoned with chiles and citrus.

For, that heat is marvelous and cuts the cloyingness of the candy. Plus, the citrusy touch (probably due to citric acid, rather than real limes or lemons) will have you reaching for another square while your mouth is still working on a piece. Serve these with chilled beer.

If you would prefer straight-up brittle, use plain toasted peanuts. Add about ½ teaspoon salt if the peanuts are unsalted, and then serve the brittle with hot tea. 

Your best bet for toasted peanuts would be a health food store with a fast turnover and a good selection of bulk bins. In my area, that might be Berkeley Bowl or Whole Foods. Places like Trader Joe’s have some good spiced nuts, too, but you won’t be able to sample them.

Caramelizing syrup

Get your maltose at any self-respecting Chinese grocery store. It comes in plastic tubs and usually is hiding on the sugar aisle. It’s easiest to weigh maltose, rather than spoon it out into a measuring cup. Either way, nuke the opened jar for about a minute, or just until the maltose has softened enough to spoon or pour out. It’s always a good idea to spray your measuring cup or bowl with oil, as otherwise maltose can be hellishly sticky.

That being said, that maltose makes for one heck of a great candy. The brittle really is crunchy, rather than sticky, because the sugars were all caramelized. So you see, we have caramel + peanuts + chile. I’m definitely in my happy place.

Crispy spicy Chinese peanut brittle chez Huang

Gooey strings that harden up

Huángjiā làxiāngcuì huāshēngtáng 黃家辣香脆花生糖

Makes almost 2 pounds | 850 g

Spray oil

1 cup | 200 g sugar

⅔ cup | 225 g maltose (see headnotes)

½ cup | 125 ml water

1 pound | 450 g toasted chile-lime peanuts, or any other unsweetened toasted nuts

¼ cup | 40 g toasted sesame seeds, optional

1. Prepare an 8 x 8 inch | 20 x 20 cm metal pan and a sheet of parchment paper (or foil) by spraying them lightly with oil, and have a silicone spatula ready. Place the sugar, maltose, and water in a high, 2-quart | 2-liter steel pan. (You will need the light color of the metal in order to determine when the sugar has caramelized, and it should have high sides so that the syrup doesn’t bubble over.)

Press into an even layer

2. Bring the syrup mixture to a full boil over medium heat, stirring it occasionally. As soon as it boils, cover the pan and cook the syrup for a couple of minutes so that the steam washes down any sugar, which might otherwise cause the syrup to crystallize after it cools, instead of staying nice and smooth.

3. Remove the cover and cook the syrup until it starts to caramelize, which will take about 10 minutes. The syrup will bubble up into a froth first, and then settle down into a smaller layer of bubbles just before the sugar darkens. Swirl the pan as it boils to achieve an even, light golden hue. It will smell like caramel when it’s ready. If you’d prefer to use a candy thermometer, that would be about 320°F | 160°C. When you have caramelized syrup in your pan, reduce the heat to the absolute minimum.

Perfect for Chinese New Year, too

4. At that moment, quickly stir in the nuts and optional sesame seeds, and then mix them thoroughly with the spatula so as to coat each piece well. Keeping the pan on low heat will help keep the syrup from seizing up. Scrape the mixture out into the prepare pan. Immediately cover the pan with the oiled paper and the towel, and then press down on it to create a level layer.

5. Cool the candy for a couple of minutes, just until the bottom of the pan is warm. Turn the pan over onto a cutting board and slice it into small squares or rectangles. Refrigerate in a covered container.

Black sesame candy wafers

This was my late father-in-law’s absolute favorite candy by a country mile. He munched on a couple of pieces every day, ostensibly to keep his hair black, but also because he had the biggest sweet tooth I’ve ever seen.

Any trip to a Chinatown market would involve him placing a packet of these crisp wafers into his shopping basket with a satisfied smile. 

They would be opened up in the afternoon when he sat down to enjoy his cup of hot jasmine tea, with a pile of toasted pumpkin seeds on the side. All of these had therapeutic value, he assured us, as he happily nibbled away. I must admit, it took little encouragement for me to join in, too.

The only thing I never really liked about these wafers is that they sometimes tasted a bit (or more than a bit) stale. Who knows how long they had been idling on some shelf, waiting for my father-in-law to take them home. Or else the seeds hadn’t been toasted enough, giving them a slightly bitter edge, rather than exploding with the right amount of nuttiness.

Starting the candy syrup

So, that is why I worked on creating these at home. For one thing, they are guaranteed fresh for, at least, the five minutes it takes between making them and me devouring them on the spot. I know they have the right amount of toasted goodness, as well, because if the seeds aren’t already toasted, they get dry-fried for a few minutes before they are coated with this crunchy caramel.

If you are new to candy making, this is a great place to start. It’s one of the easiest recipes around. Once you have the seeds toasted, you will spend more time setting up than actually creating these delectable shards.

By the way, these candies are truly beautiful when made with black sesame seeds. Their ebony surfaces glisten, refracting light and suggesting that you take just one more bite. The slices offer a gorgeous contrast, too, since the insides of the seeds are a delicate white. But still, if black sesame isn’t hanging around your house, by all means use white or unhulled or a mixture of different sesame seeds. They will be equally delicious.

Start timing now

Even now, when we visit my father-in-law’s grave in Southern California, we are always sure to bring a gift of these candies along with some other of his favorite sweets, a bunch of flowers, a couple of fresh tangerines, and sticks of sandalwood incense. Some things are just too good to let a little thing like death get in the way.

Black sesame candy wafers

Hēi zhīmá táng 黑芝麻糖

Makes around 6 ounces | 180 g

¾ c | 100 g raw or toasted black sesame seeds

1 tablespoon water

3 tablespoons packed | 40 g black or dark brown sugar

¼ teaspoon sea salt

Stir in the butter

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon softened butter (salted or unsalted)

1. Prepare 1 baking sheet and 1 sheet of Silpat or parchment paper, as well as a rolling pin and a small work bowl. Line the baking sheet with the Silpat or parchment paper.

2. If your sesame seeds are raw, toast them first by dry-frying them: Place them in a wok without any oil and set it over medium-high heat. Use a large silicone spatula to stir them as they toast, paying special attention to the bottom of the wok where the heat is the fiercest. As the seeds toast, they will start to pop and smell divine. Taste them as you go along, and when you no longer can detect rawness, scoop them out into the work bowl. If your sesame seeds are already toasted, skip this step.

Coat the seeds with the syrup

3. Put the water, sugar, salt, and honey in the wok and bring it to a full boil over medium-high heat. As soon as the top of the liquid is just about covered with bubbles, set your timer for exactly 2 minutes. You don’t need to stir the syrup, just let it bubble away. As soon as the 2 minutes are up, immediately remove the wok from the heat and use your silicone spatula to first stir in the butter and then the sesame seeds so that they are all evenly coated with the syrup. This will turn into a soft mass that will leave the sides of the wok (see the photo to the right).

4. Scrape the hot sesame candy onto the lined baking sheet. Dip your silicone spatula in boiling water as needed to quickly turn the candy into as thin a layer as possible. Roll out the candy until it forms a very thin sheet, about one-sixteenth of an inch | 1.5 mm is ideal. A good way to do this by guesstimate is to have a thickness of no more than 4 or 5 seeds, as this helps make the candy shatteringly crisp.

Roll out a big wafer

5. As soon as you have the correct thickness, and while the candy is still warm, flip it out onto a cutting board. Use a long, sharp, heavy knife to trim off the uneven edges and cut it into rectangles. Any size is fine, but I like the shape that reminds me of my father-in-law: about ¾ x 1 ½ inch | 20 x 40 mm.

6. Cool the candy completely, and then refrigerate it in a closed container. I like to keep it hidden in the back of the refrigerator with something like “anchovies” written on the side to keep it from disappearing too quickly.

Tips

Buy your sesame seeds where there is a fast turnover, since they are awful when stale. Before you use them, taste a couple of seeds to ensure that they taste fresh. Store any extras in a cool place and use them up as soon as you can.

A perfect New Year treat, too

I like to toast my sesame seeds and have them on hand to toss into different dishes or sprinkle on cookies. It’s somehow reassuring—at least to me—to have a couple of jars of toasted peanuts, sesame seeds, and soybeans ready to go to work at a moment’s notice.

A good way to measure out the honey is to first pour the water into a small (¼ cup | 60 ml) measuring cup before adding the honey. The honey will flow out much easier.

The raggedy edges of the sesame candy should be trimmed off and squirreled away for a private treat. However, if you are feeling generous, they can be sprinkled on top of ice cream or puddings. But only if you really like those people.

Chinese candied kumquats

One of the highlights of Chinese New Year has always been the possibility that I will finally have my fill of Chinese candied kumquats. My appetite for these tasty little jewels has still not been sated, and it is not for lack of trying. 

The problem is that even in Taiwan, not that many people make (or made) really good candied kumquat, so demand has always seriously outstripped supply when it comes to me and the perfect sugary golden morsel.  And even if I do come across a bag of them, they have to be fresh in order to really get me excited, but most tend to sit around on shelves for ages before somebody likes me comes traipsing through the store, so I often end up tossing out whatever was once initially pounced on with delight.

It is near the end of kumquat season here in California, and now that I am making lots of Anhui dishes, I've come across a new need for kumquat candy, because it is used not only for desserts, but also for various meat dishes. If that strikes you as odd, think of that seventies dish that was once the height of sophistication: duck a la orange. 

In Anhui, as in other eastern provinces, candied kumquats are used to add a generous citrus note to lots of local creations, especially ones that feature pork. Chocolate and vanilla are nonexistent in the traditional cuisine, of course, but you can fine floral notes courtesy of rose petals and sweet olive blossoms (guihua), hot undercurrents due to ginger, and the nose-tingling evidence of warm spices like cinnamon and anise and fennel, but the most dramatic flavoring around seems to be the one that candied kumquats provide.

Fresh kumquats

And even though I thought that finding candied kumquats was difficult, locating a good recipe for kumquat candy was even harder. 

Most recipes I uncovered call for them to be boiled away in a syrup, and I tried that, and they ended up soft and mushy and tasted like marmalade, which is fine -- and marmalade can be used in a pinch if you don't have any candied 'quats hanging around your pantry -- but I wanted those mounds of those delicious, whole, sugared baby oranges with moist, tart centers that haunted my dreams, ones like I used to buy from a Shanghainese candy store in downtown Taipei in late winter. My quest led me to develop the following recipe, and I find that it faithfully echoes those faint but delicious memories.

I soon found that the biggest problem was keeping the fruits from bursting, because I wanted to retain the lovely shape of the kumquats in the finished candy. The secret to this is pricking the fruit all over so that steam can escape, and these holes also serve as perfect conduits for the syrup to wiggle its way into the molten centers and transform all those juicy pockets into crystallized bits of candy. Second, never allow the fruit to boil away; kumquats have delicate skins that require kid glove treatment; poaching and soaking them in hot syrup gives the skins time to toughen up with the sugar, and this in turn gives the skins a characteristic chewiness that I love so well.

This recipe takes a bit of time, but basically it is a matter of bringing a pot of water and kumquats to a boil three times, letting them soak in the hot water until the water cools down a bit, bringing them to a boil three times in sugar syrup, and then finally coating them with sugar. In other words, there is a lot of waiting around for things to happen, so you can attend to other things while the kumquats get busy turning into candy.

The reason why kumquats are given three hot baths is to remove the bitterness from the skins and to tenderize them so that they soak up the syrup later on. You will still have some seeds in the candies, but never fear, as they are edible, and they are easy to unobtrusively spit out if you are not inclined to nibble on them. Store the kumquats in an airtight container in a dark, cool place and enjoy them while they are still moist and delectable.

Candied kumquats 
Jīnjú táng 金橘糖 

Anhui
Makes about 2 pounds candy

About 2 pounds fresh kumquats
Boiling water as needed
2 cups sugar
2 cups filtered water
A good pinch of salt
A good pinch of cream of tartar
More granulated sugar for sanding the candies

Translucent amber balls

1. Wash the kumquats carefully and discard any that don't look perfect. The ends of the stems can be left on the fruit if they are trimmed very short. Prick the kumquats all over (at least 10 times) with a pin or skewer. Place the kumquats in a 2-quart saucepan and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil, cover the pan, and remove it from the heat. Allow the water to cool down a bit (at least half an hour), pour off the water, cover the kumquats with fresh cool water, and bring the pot to a boil again. Boil and rest the kumquats three times. (You can do this part ahead of time, if you wish, and refrigerate the cooked kumquats for a day or two.)

2. Place the kumquats back in the pan, add the sugar, 2 cups water, salt, and cream of tartar, bring the pot to a full boil, and then lower the heat to very low, so that there is practically no movement in the pan, as the kumquats will be very tender at this point and will easily fall apart. Slowly cook the fruit for about an hour, or until the fruit looks translucent and dark.  Cover the pan and let the fruit sit overnight in the syrup.

3. Bring the syrup to a boil, cover the pan, and turn off the heat; let the kumquats and syrup return to room temperature. Do this three times until they look like balls of pure amber.

Sugary on the outside, tart on the inside

4. Thoroughly drain the kumquats (reserve the syrup for something else; see the note below) on a cake rack overnight. Place about a cup of sugar on a rimmed plate or tray and roll a few of the sticky kumquats at a time in the sugar until they are completely coated. Place the sugared kumquats in an airtight container with extra sugar between them and keep in a cool, dark place. Use while still plump and fresh.

Note: The syrup can be used over pancakes or waffles, like marmalade, as a flavoring for sparkling water, and as a delicious coating for things like baked ham. Use any broken kumquats for cooking and save the pretty ones to serve with tea.