Name: Clear Sunflower Brittle
Yield: 1.25 pounds
Ingredients: 2 cups sugar; 1 cup light corn syrup; 1 cup water; 2 cups raw shelled sunflower seeds; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 to 3 tablespoons butter; ¼ teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon vanilla

Here is a very tasty sunflower brittle recipe that Julia, a San Francisco garden designer, recently cooked up using a recipe adapted from The Joy of Cooking.

This brittle is light and sunflower nutty and a perfect snack for an afternoon in the garden.

Julia advises that you might want to have ready a pair of clean white cotton gloves before you get started.

For this recipe, it is best to use raw sunflower seeds that will be cooked in the syrup. If you only have roasted seeds, add them after the syrup is cooked. If the seeds are salted, rub them between paper towels and omit the salt from the recipe.

Table of Contents

Clear Sunflower Brittle

Author Julia from San Francisco

Yield 1.25 pounds

This recipe makes a tender clear brittle. For a porous brittle, combine ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar with the sugar, and sprinkle ½ teaspoon of soda all over the hot syrup just before pouring.

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup water
2 cups raw shelled sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 to 3 tablespoons butter
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Bring 1 cup of water to a boil over low heat in a large heavy pan. Remove from heat and stir in until dissolved 2 cups sugar and 1 cup corn syrup. Wash down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in warm water.
Raise the heat and cook to hard-ball stage (265ºF –measured with a candy thermometer) then add raw shelled sunflower seeds and salt. Stir occasionally to submerge any exposed nuts so that they cook thoroughly and are coated with the syrup. Make sure the candy does not burn.
Cook to almost hard-crack stage (295ºF). Remove from heat. Stir in lightly butter, baking soda, and vanilla.
Pour onto a well buttered slab at once, scraping out bottom of pan. Spread mixture rapidly with a spatula.
At this point, don the cotton gloves (or well buttered plastic gloves). Loosen the mass from the slab with a scraper, reverse it and set aside the scraper.
Stretch and pull the brittle so thin that you can see through it. When cool, crack into eating-size pieces and store at once in a tightly covered tin.