Popular brittle can be made with creamy or crunchy peanut butter

Dear Laura: I seem to have misplaced my recipe for Peanut Butter Brittle. I would appreciate if you could reprint it, as I am supposed to make some. Also, can you use chunky peanut butter? — Dolores, of Spokane

Dear Dolores: This is a popular recipe! We’ve received many requests for it since it was published last year. I’ve made it only with creamy peanut butter, but I think crunchy would work as well, but yield a different texture, of course. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Brittle

From Dorothy Dean Homemaker Services

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 cups light corn syrup

2 cups salted peanuts

2 to 2 1/2 cups peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Combine sugar and water in a heavy saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil over high heat. Spoon hot sugar syrup up the sides of the pan to wash down sugar crystals thoroughly. Stir in corn syrup. Cook to hard crack stage, 300 to 310 degrees. Meanwhile, mix peanuts, peanut butter and vanilla. Remove syrup from heat; at once add peanut butter mixture. Stir in soda. Pour onto greased cookie sheet; quickly spread with a fork.

Yield: About 3 pounds of creamy peanut brittle

Nutrition per 1/6 pound: 467 calories, 26 grams fat (5 grams saturated, 50 percent fat calories), 13 grams protein, 53 grams carbohydrate, no cholesterol, 3.5 grams dietary fiber, 373 milligrams sodium.

Dear Laura: I cut out a recipe for a lemon-cherry trifle a while back and have since lost it. It used lemon pudding, sweetened condensed milk and cherry pie filling. If you still have it, I would love the recipes. — Patty

Dear Patty: I didn’t find a recipe in the newspaper archives that matches the description you gave. I found several variations of the recipe below on the Internet. The original recipe used vanilla pudding instead of lemon pudding. It’s a simple recipe that lends itself to many variations, such as using chocolate cake or strawberries, banana pudding and white cake.

Cherry Cream Trifle

Adapted from www.recipegoldmine.com

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 cups cold water

1 small package (4-ounce) instant lemon pudding mix

2 cups whipping cream, whipped

1 lemon-flavored cake, cut into cubes

1 or 2 (19-ounce) cans cherry pie filling

In a large mixing bowl, combine milk and water. Add pudding mix; beat well. Chill until thickened, about 20 minutes.

Fold in whipped cream. Spoon enough pudding to cover the bottom of a round serving dish into a bowl. Top with some of the cake cubes and then some of the cherry filling. Repeat procedure ending with the pudding on top. Chill at least 4 hours.

Yield: 10 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 625 calories, 25 grams fat (15 grams saturated, 36 percent fat calories), 7 grams protein, 92 grams carbohydrate, 76 milligrams cholesterol, 1 gram dietary fiber, 423 milligrams sodium.