From tradition to business

BOULDER – Making candy during the holidays is as traditional as putting up a Christmas tree for some people. For Fran and John Eichenauer making peanut brittle is an art form.

The couple recently launched a new business in Boulder – Papa Ben’s Peanut Brittle.

The Eichenauers have been making peanut brittle for 35 years in the tradition of Ben Eichenauer, John’s father, who began making brittle 60 years ago in a small kitchen in Decatur, Ind.

When Fran retired as executive director of Boulder-based Parenting Place earlier this year, she and John were encouraged by friends and family to begin selling their homemade peanut brittle online.

“We were canoeing in Grand Lake over Labor Day,” Fran said. “I said to John, ‘Why don’t we start that peanut brittle business we’ve always talked about?'”

When they returned from that trip Fran found a commercial kitchen, got a manufacturing license from the state and had one of their sons design a Web site, www.papabensbrittle.com

“We met a man at the Boulder Farmers’ Market named Karim Amirfathi who was a real help,” Fran said. “He owns Altan Alma Organic Farms in Boulder. We were clueless about where to begin and buy our packing supplies, organic sugar and Valencia peanuts from him.”

The Eichenauers use a licensed kitchen at Shamane’s Bake Shoppe to make the peanut brittle. Fran was unsure where to find a commercial kitchen, but a friend suggested she ask bakeries. She called the shop that had prepared the food for her son’s wedding.

They have sold their peanut brittle at a number of local events this year including a fundraiser for Parenting Place, the Art Christmas Sale at the Left Hand Grange in Niwot, the Boulder County Farmers’ Market and Winter Fair in Longmont.

Packaged samples of peanut brittle can be found in plastic and cloth bags at 11 locations in Boulder including: the Laughing Goat, Feather Thy Nest, Organica Caf? and Espresso Bar, Word is Out Bookstore, the Brewing Market, the Tea Spot, Lolita’s Market and Deli, Belvedere Belgian Chocolate Shop, the Hotel Boulderado gift shop, the Millennium Hotel gift shop, Vics 2 and A Bolder Basket Kase.

The peanut brittle is sold in 4-ounce bags for $4.50, 8-ounce bags for $8.50 and one-pound bags for $16.50. It is also available online at www.papabensbrittle.com and can be sold in bulk to businesses to buy for clients during the holidays.

The Eichenauers will begin selling their peanut brittle at the Boulder Farmers’ Market in May.

The secret to making good peanut brittle is all in the timing. “John doesn’t use a candy thermometer,” Fran said. “He stands over the stove stirring and uses his sense of sight and smell to tell him when a batch is done. Candy making is pretty precise. If you undercook it, the brittle won’t set. If you overcook, it’s burned. Each batch is a little bit different. Once he knows it’s done, he has one minute to pour and level it on a cookie sheet, and we bag it 20 minutes later.”

For John making peanut brittle with his father was a normal family event – a way for a family who lived on a limited income to give holiday gifts.

Now, the Eichenauer’s two sons – Benjamin and Joe – learn to make peanut brittle the old-fashioned way, in the tradition of their father.

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