Thursday, October 8, 2009

Old Dominion Brittle

Old Dominion BrittleNut brittle is an incredibly simple candy but at the same time completely flexible to adaptations.

The most basic ingredients are sugar, corn syrup and baking soda. There’s no butter in it, like toffee and just about any kind of nuts or snack seeds can be added.

The crunch of brittle is provided by both the hardened sugar (which is made airy by the use of baking soda added just as the boiling mixture is removed from the heat) and the use of fresh nuts.

Most nut brittles are served in a rustic fashion. Big sheets of the candy are broken into little bits and planks.

I found Old Dominion brittle at the drug store and was intrigued. First of all, it’s all natural ... no coloring, no preservatives. Second, Old Dominion is a peanut company and they’ve been around for 95 years, so they must be doing something right. Third, the stuff was cheap.

I picked up two boxes. The Cashew Brittle was only 99 cents at Rite Aid and the Peanut Brittle was $1.69 ... but was twice the weight of the cashew.

Old Dominion Peanut Brittle

The box seemed a little big for the amount of candy in it. But it was well packaged inside with an oversized & thick mylar pouch.

Inside the planks, slivers & pieces clank pleasantly, kind of like poker chips.

It definitely smells like toasted peanuts. Glancing at the pieces though they don’t have as many peanuts as I would have hoped, there’s a lot more brittle than peanut.

The candy has a fresh and crunchy bite - there’s a slight foamy lightness to it. It’s just a little salty, a bit buttery tasting. The nuts are small, like those Virginia Red-skinned peanuts. I ate about half the bag and got only one bad nut, and that one was just overtoasted. Yes, I would have preferred more nuts, but considering the price,  it was a pretty good deal for a fresh & natural product.

Old Dominion Cashew Brittle

I thought this would be a straight swap of cashews for peanuts but it’s actually not. The ingredients list butter (though rather far down on the list) and the color is just a bit lighter. It smells buttery and a little grassy like cashews often do.

I love cashews and all of these were sweet & crunchy. It’s fun to see someone making an affordable cashew candy.

The pieces were a little light on the cashews, but the candy part was still crunchy & fun without them. It tastes just a little saltier, which seems to offset the sweetness of the cashews themselves. I really can’t complain about it at all ... it’s a quarter pound of good quality candy for only a buck.

I liked the design of the boxes, classic and accurate in their depiction of the product ... well, maybe the pictures make it look like there are more nuts. I might have preferred a zip locked bag inside, but I usually have extras around and just tuck them into those to keep them from getting sticky from ambient moisture. It’s a little hard to see because it’s just emboss/stamped into the end of the box, but they do list a “best by” date.

The calories listed for the peanut brittle are 180 per 30 grams (a little over 1 ounce). This makes no sense to me, even one ounce of peanuts is only 160 calories ... so I think there’s a typo. The cashew package says 130 calories, which seems about right for a product that’s mostly sugar.

Old Dominion, based in Norfolk, Virginia, also makes Butter Toffee Peanuts, Peanut Squares/Bars and a “covered” version of the peanut brittle (which I steered away from because it was mockolate).

Related Candies

  1. Marich Chocolate Sea Salt Cashews
  2. Morning Glory Confections: Chai Tea & Cashew Brittle
  3. Planters Peanut Bar Original
  4. See’s Peanut Brittle Bar
  5. Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews
Name: Peanut Brittle & Cashew Brittle
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Old Dominion Peanut Company
Place Purchased: Rite Aid & Walgreen's (Echo Park)
Price: $1.69 & $.99
Size: 8 ounces & 4 ounces
Calories per ounce: 170 & 123 (something wrong with the Peanut Brittle calorie count)
Categories: Peanut, Hard Candy, Nuts, United States, All Natural, Kosher

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:04 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. I like their brittle.  It may be a little light on the nuts, but for the price, it’s a good enough deal.  And it’s cheap enough that if it’s killed in the house by heat or humidity, you don’t feel you’ve wasted a ton of money.

    Comment by Cat Skyfire on 10/08/09 at 11:27 am #
  2. i think this brittle is amazing and i can’t believe how cheap it is! i spoke with the Old Dominion folks at the Candy Expo and told them i was a huge fan and that i thought they could charge a heck of a lot more.
    oh, and give the mockolate a try.  if there are ranges of mockolate quality, this stuff is pretty high up there.

    Comment by laura on 10/08/09 at 8:21 pm #
  3. This is by far the the best peanut brittle on the market.  Last year, I bought all 3 varieties over the holidays and put them into gift baskets for family and friends.  Everyone LOVED them and I will do the same this year.  I agree with Laura regarding the dipped brittle, it is my favorite of the 3, so I would definitely give it a try.  These are such great products and a very good deal for the consumer. I was very glad to see it on your blog.

    Comment by Michael on 10/12/09 at 9:03 am #
  4. Hey, this comes from my hometown, i will have to check it out.

    Comment by Tripp on 10/12/09 at 9:19 am #
  5. I’m allergic to peanuts, so I bought Old Dominion’s cashew brittle. Alas, the last item on the ingredient list printed on the box is “peanuts”!

    Comment by Thomas McLean on 10/18/09 at 4:37 am #
  6. I found Old Dominion’s brittle’s in a local discoint store…much to my surprise. Talk about finding a pot of gold in the mud. This stuff is great, from quality to taste, its thumbs up.

    I openened the chocolate covered to taste it and almost polished off the whole box. Of course, I blamed it on my husband! All I can say is beware, this stuff goes down really easily. I call it crack for “candy-istas’s”

    Comment by Teddi on 11/03/09 at 8:57 am #
  7. Someone at work gave this to me to munch on, which I am doing right this minute. Delicious! I’ve got the chocolate dipped kind, and like one of the other posters here, I am in the process of polishing off the entire box!

    Comment by Sherri on 12/07/09 at 5:08 pm #
  8. I ran across a box of Old Dominion cashew brittle at Marschall’s the other night. I’m not allergic to peanuts, but have been told by my liver DR. to avoid them. I love this stuff! I had to search online to find out where I could get it. Thanks to you guys I know where to start now. I’ll be on it like a duck on a Junebug. Thanks.
    Bo

    Comment by William P Graves on 1/29/10 at 5:51 pm #
  9. Old Dominion is quite possibly the worst peanut brittle made.  Old Dominion’s box shows brittle jammed full of nuts - a connoisseurs’ delight.  Opening the box reveals a vacuum sealed bag - freshness guaranteed!  Alas, examining the contents reveals a brittle truly lacking in peanuts, no where near what’s advertised.  I bought a second box thinking that it was just a ‘one of’ but no, the same results.  A candy containing about 16 peanuts.  For a product that retails for 4.99 (CAN) I would think that the contents would more closely resemble the picture on the box.  Truly disappointing.  Find an old fashion candy store where you can view the contents - you will be much happier. (I sorted the bag and took out the pieces that contained peanuts.  Three quarters of the bag was just candy, and not very good at that.

    Comment by MS on 1/09/12 at 11:26 am #
  10. I found Old Dominion cashew brittle while shopping at Ross, and I bought two boxes of the stuff, and I tell you it was so addicting, I went online looking for more! this stuff is great! Please let know where I can locate more of it.

    Comment by Michael G. Jones on 11/26/12 at 10:16 pm #
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