Homemade Red Peanut Patties Recipe: Texas Gas Station
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Peanut Patties are an old-fashioned southern treat that was often found at roadside stands and gas stations or fresh from your grandmother’s kitchen. Their classic red color makes them a standout on your holiday sweets table.
Table of contents
This Southern-style Red Peanut Patties recipe is a delicious combination of sweet and salty flavors.
The roasted peanuts give the patties a nutty, crunchy texture that is sure to tantalize your taste buds.
These perfect little morsels of deliciousness are perfect for snacking or for a special occasion.
With just a few simple ingredients and a quick baking time, these peanut patties are sure to become a favorite in your house.
Peanut Patties are a Texas Gas Station classic, but they are so good!
Almost like the Texas version of pralines, maybe?
Maybe we’ll call them Texas Peanut Patties!
Peanut Patties and Extra Buttery Peanut Brittle are hands-down classics around here.
🎥 Video Tutorial: How to Make Peanut Patties
Click the PLAY button below to watch our video tutorial on how to make the best Peanut Patties at home.
This is the video tutorial you need to ensure that your Peanut Patties firm up.
You can see more video tutorials on Instagram @gracelikerainblog.
🔑 Key to Success #1 – Cook to the Magic Temperature
The first step to making yummy Peanut Patties is boiling the peanuts in a sugary candy mixture.
In a 4-quart saucepan, combine the raw peanuts, sugar, corn syrup, and water.
If you’re not familiar with corn syrup, it’s also called white Karo syrup or light corn syrup. It’s not the same as pancake syrup.
Heat over medium heat until the mixture starts to boil.
Continue stirring the sugar mixture with a wooden spoon until it reaches 240 degrees F on a candy thermometer.
This is the magic temperature – 240 degrees F.
I use a candy thermometer that clips to the side of the pan so that it stays in the perfect spot not touching the bottom of the pan.
It’s critical that the candy reaches 240 degrees F and not a bit more so that it will set up properly when it cools.
If you have any doubts about your candy thermometer, you can test your candy mixture by dropping a bit into a cup of ice water.
If the candy easily forms a ball in the ice water then flattens when removed from the water, this is an indication that it has reached the soft ball stage and is ready.
Remove the candy from the heat once it reaches the soft ball stage at 240 degrees F.
🔑 Key to Success #2 – Mix In The Flavor and Color
After the sugar mixture reaches the magic temperature of 240 degrees F, remove it from the heat and add in all the classic Peanut Patty flavor.
We’re adding butter, salt, and vanilla.
Lots of butter.
More butter = more flavor.
We’re also adding in red food coloring to get that pretty red Peanut Patty color.
I highly recommend using a high-quality gel food coloring because you will use less product and get a more saturated color.
My favorite gel food coloring is made by Americolor.
You can get the Americolor red food coloring on its own or in one of the Americolor kits.
You will only need 2-3 drops of gel food coloring to get a beautiful red color on your peanut patties.
Stir in the food coloring well until the red is uniform throughout the candy.
You’ll end up with a creamy opaque red candy that is chock full of peanuts.
🔑 Key to Success #3 – Cool to the Magic Temperature
Surprise! This recipe has two magic temperatures.
The first one was to the temperature to which to heat your candy. The second one is the temperature to which to cool your candy.
After your candy reaches the soft ball stage and you add in all the flavor components, it’s time to let the candy cool in the pan.
You want your candy to cool to 135 degrees F before you spoon it out onto waxed paper to form patties.
If you try to form patties with the candy that is warmer than 135 degrees F, your candy will run all over the waxed paper instead of staying in a round patty.
If you cool the candy past 135 degrees F, your candy will be too firm to form a patty.
It will be more like a hard clump of candy instead of a round, smooth patty.
When your candy cools to 135 degrees F, use a tablespoon to scoop out about a tablespoon of candy and place it on a sheet of waxed paper.
You can use a table knife to scrape the candy off the spoon onto the wax paper.
The Peanut Patties will spread out into a more rounded shape and the peanuts will become mostly single-layered as the patties rest.
You can also spoon the candy mixture into a muffin pan that has been greased with cooking spray to create perfectly round peanut patties.
Allow the Peanut Patties to sit at room temperature for at least an hour or until the candy is firm and pulls away from the waxed paper with little effort.
📌 Get the Printable Recipe for Peanut Patties
Save this Peanut Patty recipe to your favorite Christmas Candy board or your Peanut Candy board.
Peanut Patties
Ingredients
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 3 cups raw Spanish peanuts
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup butter
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp salt
- 1-2 drops red gel food coloring
Directions
- In a 4-quart heavy saucepan, combine sugar, peanuts, light corn syrup, and water.
- Heat on medium until candy mixture reaches 240 degrees F. Stir constantly.
- Remove from heat and add butter, vanilla, salt, and red food coloring.
- Allow the candy mixture to sit for about an hour until it cools to 135 degrees F. Stir occasionally while the candy is cooling.
- Immediately spoon candy mixture onto waxed paper or parchment paper on a flat surface to form patties.
- Allow candy to sit uncovered at least 1 hour or until firm.
Notes
-
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a month.
Equipment
Nutrition Facts
⭐ Leave a comment and rating below — it helps other readers!
👩🍳 Did you make any changes or substitutions?
I’d love to hear how it turned out in your kitchen.
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I made these for the umpteenth time. They did not set after a couple of days. Eating them is like eating pure sugar. Will try again. Don’t know what I did wrong. My question is what can the candy be used for since it did not set?
Thank you
This is a good question. You could try to remelt the candy and cook it to the proper temperature again. Or maybe mix it with melted chocolate or almond bark and then spoon it out again for a peanut treat?
Those look wonderful.
I followed your directions fully. I let it cool below 135 to start spooning out, it was runny for about 15 candies. I then kept stirring until it was getting much thicker cooling much lower. These came out much better and are right consistency. Mine needed to cool much lower and be stirred to thicken. I lost my old recipe I have made for years and needed another!
This worked exactly as written, thanks!
Hello, I just wanted to thank you for the detailed information in your Peanut Pattie recipe. The temperature for soft ball stage is very important but the cool down temp is the first I have seen written. (Perfect for pralines too!)
Thank you, no more guessing. 🥳
Blessings, Bb
think the problem is too much corn syrup, ive made peanut patties 100s of times from different online recipes and this is the first time they didnt set up, I knew better than to put that much corn syrup , and yes I calibrated my thermometer and yes I got the temps right
I followed the instructions exactly and they never set!
@Michelle, you may need to test your candy thermometer to make sure it’s reading properly. Boil a pot of water. Once the water is at a full rolling boil, insert the candy thermometer into the middle of the water making sure it’s not touching the bottom or sides of the pan. The thermometer should read 212 degrees F or 100 degrees C. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to adjust your cook time on this recipe accordingly.
I made this twice, followed directions as written, and never set – I threw two batches away. I’m not sure where it went wrong.
Test your candy thermometer to make sure it’s reading the correct temp! (Place it in rapidly boiling water for 30 seconds – it should read 212 degrees F.)
I followed the directions cooked the sugar mixture to 240 stirred it constantly. Added the butter , vanilla, salt and food coloring stirred it occasionally and let it sit to 135 on the candy thermometer. But it never set has been setting for several hours and it never set.
The best, turned out great. If you like peanut patties, you’ll love these