If you want fast, this isn't for you.  I make pounds and pounds of this every year – it's wonderful!

Buttery Cashew Brittle

(Can also be used with peanuts, almonds, or macadamia nuts.)

2 cups sugar

1 cup light-colored corn syrup

½ cup water

1 cup butter

3 cups (about 12 oz.) raw cashews

1 teaspoon baking soda, sifted

In 3-quart saucepan combine sugar, corn syrup, and water.  Cook and stir till sugar dissolves.  Bring syrup to boiling; add butter and stir till butter is melted.  Clip a candy thermometer to side of pan.  Reduce heat to medium low; continue boiling at a moderate, steady rate, stirring occasionally, till thermometer registers 280 degrees (about 35 minutes).  This is the soft-crack stage.

Stir in the nuts; continue cooking over medium-low heat stirring frequently till thermometer registers 300 degrees (10 to 15 minutes more).  This is the hard-crack stage.

Remove mixture from heat; remove thermometer.  Quickly stir in the baking soda, mixing thoroughly.  Pour mixture onto two buttered baking sheets or two buttered 15 x 10 x 1 – inch pans.

As the cashew brittle cools, stretch it out by lifting and pulling with two forks from edges.  Loosen from pans as soon as possible; pick up sections and break them into bite-size pieces.  Store tightly covered.  Makes about 2 ½ pounds (72 servings).

*Use only wooden spoons for stirring candy mixtures.
* Best to make candy on a dry day.  If humidity is above 60 percent, your candy may not set properly.
*I butter my cooking pan – to the top – and this allows sugar mixture to slip down the sides of the pan when stirred.