I love baking, but its sometimes not so great for J and I. Both for our waist sizes and also for our health– eating freshly baked chocolate chip cookies every single night may taste great, but I don’t think it can be that good for you. Yeah,… that’s thats what I’m thinking…

So about a month ago, J and I went to our friends house for dinner. I volunteered to bring the dessert. Baking for other people motivates me and gives me a reason to try out something new and fresh that I’ve never made before. And I also don’t have to worry about having a dozen sweets in our house, to be left for only J and I to eat. It’s great, I don’t have to worry about growing old and overly plump,… at least for one night.

On this particular night, I didn’t want to have to go out to the store to purchase ingredients. And I was so proud of myself! I came up with two desserts with ingredients that came solely from our cupboards. One of the desserts was the Lime Meltaways, which I posted pictures of a few weeks ago and the other,…

Almond Brittle!

I had never made brittle before and always thought it would be some difficult task. However, it wasn’t at all… if anything, it was very basic and easy.

I found the recipe on Noshtalgia’s blog, while surfing through some cooking sites. And, although it’s for Peanut Brittle, I didn’t have any peanuts so I replaced them with Almonds and sprinkled the top with broken up chunks of chocolate.

Don’t be intimidated…it really wasn’t that hard to make. I really was amazed!

All you do is gather the basic ingredients: almonds (or any nut you desire), water, baking soda, butter, white sugar, white karo syrup, salt, and chocolate chunks.

Boil everything except for the baking soda, butter, and chocolate until it reaches a temperature of 310 degrees on your thermometer. I used this type of thermometer.

Then, take it off the heat, stir in your baking soda and butter, and pour onto your buttered cookie sheet.

It should harden pretty rapidly. If you like,…of course you would like to!, sprinkle on chunks of chocolate…yum, yum… and spread it over your brittle if you’re going for the full chocolate coverage.

After it has cooled, pick up the large slab of sugary, nutty goodness and drop it back onto your cookie sheet. Repeat with the pieces until they break into the sizes you like.

Almond Brittle

(adapted from Noshtalgia’s Blog)

2 cups almonds (broken into pieces)

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup white Karo syrup

About a teaspoon of salt (to season and counteract with the sweet)

About 1 1/2 cups of any kind of chocolate you like broken up into bits.

-Butter a cookie sheet and set aside.

-Mix water, sugar, almonds, salt, and syrup in a 2 quart sauce pan.

-Bring to a boil.

-Cook until candy thermometer reaches hard crack stage (310°F).

-Remove from heat.

-Quickly stir in baking soda and butter, as it will harden rapidly.

-Pour quickly onto a buttered cookie sheet and let stand for about an hour to cool.

-After it has set for about 20 minutes or so, sprinkled broken up pieces of chocolate on top of brittle. Or sprinkle it on while it is still warm and then spread the chocolate around with a knife for chocolate coated brittle.

-After it has cooled, break up into pieces.

Enjoy and let me know how it turns out!!