Keto Peanut Brittle
Crunchy and delicious Keto Peanut Brittle is the dessert you need for all your holiday get-togethers. You won’t find an easier or more scrumptious peanut brittle recipe. Imagine eating your favorite festive treat, and it also happens to be low-carb and sugar-free.
Eating peanut brittle has been a tradition in our family for as long as we can remember. It was my grandmother’s favorite candy. It’s just something we grew up eating during the holiday season, and I didn’t want to give that up just because I eat low carb.
There is always a solution to your favorite recipes; you just have to experiment with the ingredients until you get the low-carb version just right. I can tell you that this keto peanut brittle is about to change the way you think about making homemade candy.
If you love keto diet candy recipes, try my Sugar Free Toffee Candy and Keto Brownie Brittle next!
Ingredients
You won’t believe that there are only 4 simple ingredients needed to make a batch of sugar-free peanut brittle. Let’s take a look.
- Butter – I use salted butter in this recipe.
- Heavy Cream – This can be called heavy cream or heavy whipping cream depending on the brand.
- Roasted Salted Peanuts – or nuts of your choice. If they are large pieces chop them first.
- Keto Sweetener – Trim Healthy Mama Gentle Sweet or my sweetener made from a combination of xylitol, erythritol, and stevia.
See the recipe card for quantities.
How To Make Keto Peanut Brittle
Step One: Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet and set it aside.
Step Two: Add the butter, 3 tablespoons of heavy cream, and the sweetener to a medium saucepan.
Cook over medium-low heat until it’s thickens and turns deep golden brown. This step takes around 10 minutes. Stir it frequently. I don’t bother with a candy thermometer because you can tell just by the color and fragrance when this is done.
Top Tip💡
If you notice that it doesn’t seem to be thickening up, you can go ahead and turn up the heat to medium heat or even medium-high heat. If you turn up the heat, you must stir it continually. It goes from perfect to burned in seconds.
Remove the mixture from the heat and add in the rest of the heavy cream. It will bubble up. Stir until it’s smooth.
Then mix in the peanuts or nuts of your choice. Carefully pour the brittle onto the baking sheet and put it in the fridge overnight. Break into pieces, serve, and enjoy!
If you love this recipe you should try my Peanut Butter Cake with Caramel Icing next!
Variations
- Flavoring – Add vanilla extract to boost the flavor, or try adding caramel extract and sprinkling the top with sea salt for a salted caramel flavor.
- Nuts – Hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, and almonds can all be used in place of peanuts. I love my Salted Chocolate Almond Brittle Bark as a variation on this.
Make sure to try this Sugar Free Caramel Sauce next!
Tips For Making Peanut Brittle
- Try to avoid making the peanut brittle when it’s super humid. This can greatly affect the peanut brittle and not turn out as well. So, choose a dry day and you should be okay.
- Using a high-quality non-stick pan, like Caraway, is a game-changer and will save you a HUGE headache when it’s time for cleanup.
- You can use your hands or even a wooden spoon to break apart the keto peanut brittle once it’s cooled.
How Do You Store Peanut Brittle?
Peanut brittle should always be kept in the fridge, or it will become too soft. Make sure it’s in a container that is sealed tight, and it will last 3-4 weeks. This makes a great gift for people for the holidays, especially since you can make it in advance.
Additionally, you can store the keto peanut brittle in the freezer too. It should be wrapped tight and in an airtight plastic or glass container. It will last up to 6 months in the freezer, so you can always have some on hand when a craving strikes.
Can I Make this into a Soft Caramel?
Yes, this can be a softer chewier candy if you add an extra tablespoon of cream and leave it at room temperature. It’s chilling that hardens the candy into a brittle texture. At room temperature with the peanuts this almost tastes like a gluten free Snickers bar! You can cover it in melted sugar-free chocolate to really get to that flavor.
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Keto Peanut Brittle
Equipment
Ingredients
- 5 tbsp butter
- 5 tbsp heavy cream
- 1 cup roasted salted peanuts
- ½ cup Joy Filled Eats Sweetener (or see alternatives in recipe notes)
Instructions
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Melt butter over low medium until it starts to turn golden. Add the nuts. Add 4 tablespoons of the cream and the sweetener. Cook until thickened and golden. This takes about 10 minutes. If it doesn’t seem to be thickening you can turn up the heat to medium or medium high but stir constantly. It can burn quickly.
- Remove immediately from the heat and add the reserved cream. Stir until smooth.
- Pour onto the parchment-lined tray and refrigerate overnight.
Notes
Nutrition
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Originally Published November 13, 2020. Revised and Republished September 22, 2025.
Hi I was just a little confused since the method called for some salt but the ingredients list did not have any salt listed so could you tell me how much salt to put in? Thanks in advance :^)
I edited the post to clarify. This doesn’t need added salt if you use salted peanuts.
Note for Taryn, then delete: I know this is old. I wondered if you ever made this with allulose? That might be the reason many people had trouble getting it to harden. Allulose holds moisture with is great for cookies but not hard candies. I used allulose to make granola and it never dried out and wasn’t crispy, even after it was toasted and then in the oven on low for a couple hours. The next time I left out allulose and used xylitol and erythritol. Extra crispy, but a bit of the cooling effect.
Hi Georgia, publishing your comment because I think it will be helpful to others 🙂
I have not made this with allulose.
Cooked in a pan and mixture never turned brown, but then broke and had a pan of separated fat. Tried it a second time and didn’t cook as long, but the brittle wouldn’t set up. Then tried microwave like conventional brittle recipe. Same thing happened again, it broke before ever turning brown.
I’m sorry this didn’t work for you, Rick. Keto candy can be very tricky to make. I am always happy to help troubleshoot. Which sweetener did you use?
I am interested in trying this but have been reading about issues related to Erythitol use. Are you still using this sweetener?
I don’t think there is enough info yet. Personally, I’m fine using a combo of allulose/xylitol/stevia without adding erythritol. I don’t love the cooling effect of erythritol.
You can make my sweetener with just allulose and/or xylitol and stevia. You just need to keep the ratio correct (1 tsp stevia to 14 oz granular sweetener).
I made this recipe exactly like you said but I used salted cashews instead of peanuts! The taste is amazing but it was soft and not crisp! Any suggestions? Does it need to reach a certain temperature on a candy thermometer? I would love to replicate a crisp brittle!
You need to cook it a little longer if it stayed soft.
Would Bocha Sweet sweetener work for this?
I’m not sure, sorry.
I made the recipe exactly, using the JFE sweetener, and it didn’t set up. I’m so disappointed. I’m going to try freezing it, to see it that will set it up.
You didn’t cook it long enough if it’s not setting. I don’t think freezing will help, unfortunately. Most sugar free caramel does recrystallize when chilled so a day or two in the fridge might be enough. It’s better to let that happen slowly.
How many total carbs?
The nutrition info is in the recipe card.
I’m so looking forward to making this for the holidays. I have a question. What size is your cookie sheet?
10×13 but it really doesn’t matter for this. You want to spread it fairly thin so any large size cookie sheet will work.
Hi Taryn, I must have done something wrong. Mine never hardened completely and although tastes amazing, I would like to be able to make it correctly. Any ideas on what I did wrong?
My guess is you should’ve cooked it a little longer. Did you chill it overnight yet? That will cause it to harden. And leaving it longer will make it crystallize more and more.
Used swerve turned out terrible
I’m sorry that swerve didn’t work. Candies are very particular which is why I have a note in my recipe card that substitutions may not work for candy recipes.
I made this with Swerve the first time. It hardened perfectly, but it had too much “coolness” due to the Swerve. I used your sweetener combination on the second try. I cooked the syrup until the color was dark brown, almost chocolate colored. It’s been in the fridge for 36 hours, and has still not hardened. It’s more like “peanut taffy.”
You may need to cook it longer over a lower temperature. Candies can be tricky and can take a few tries to get perfect.
These sweets are absolutely gorgeous!!! I made them today with mixed nuts (walnuts, roasted hazelnuts and roasted almonds) plus some added salt – and really had to stop myself from eating the whole batch right away!
Thanks so much for all your recipes – I’ve only recently come across your blog – and love it!!!
Just one question: since I live in Germany I’m only used to metric measurements. In some of your recipes you can switch between US customary and metric measurements – it would be great if you could do this every time.
Looking forward to anything you share with us here!
Hi Silke, I am trying to add metric to every recipe but am going through 600 recipes one by one. If you have one you want converted just let me know 🙂
Can’t wait to try this 😋
Have you tried making it with the addition of baking soda to create the foamy-ness?
Not yet. LMK if you try!
Do you think Splenda would work in this recipe?
No, I don’t think so, sorry. I’d suggest looking for a recipe that calls for splenda if that is what you would like to use.