Combine all ingredients except vanilla and cook on medium heat for exactly 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the pan for 30 minutes. Drop with spoon in patties on buttered wax paper.

able to do that because it will set up in the pan if you aren't careful. We stir only until it is thick enough to form patties when dropped from a spoon onto the buttered wax paper.

Caution: the wax paper must be either buttered or coated with margarine because the candy will stick to plain wax paper.

The addition of the vanilla is optional. We've tried it both with and without the vanilla and we think leaving out the vanilla gives a flavor more like that of the old time peanut patties.

We have an electric stove and our heat setting is just below medium heat. If you have a gas range, be careful not to cook it to fast. The 1 hour cooking time is from the time we turn on the stove burner until we remove the pan from the stove. It's normal for the mixture to boil and foam during cooking.