The Good: Affordable, Good ingredients, Good company! Flavorful
The Bad: Packaging does not protect the Brownie Brittle AT ALL! Not especially nutritious
The Basics: Sheila G’s Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle might not thrill those who love caramel, or who want cookies that are intact, but it is surprisingly flavorful and worth trying!
Having recently received the entire product line from Sheila G’s and it is worth saying up front in my review of their Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle that the company is good. The people there are friendly and they seem to be committed to making a quality product. The Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle is a good product that is entirely diminished by the packaging. In the bag I was sent directly from the factory, there was only one unbroken piece of Brownie Brittle and there half an ounce (1/8th of the package!) of Brownie Brittle as crumbs.
The final flavor of Brownie Brittle from Sheila G’s for me to review (at least until they introduce a new flavor!) is the Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle. Brownie Brittle is essentially a cookie; those who associate gooey softness with brownies will be shocked by the Brownie Brittle; these treats are much closer to being cookies, thin and crispy, than they are like brownies. One of the serious detractions to buying Sheila G’s Brownie Brittle in the stores is the packaging; while I love resealable packages, the type of bag that the Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle comes in does not adequately protect the product so consumers get the most out of it. That at least one-eighth of the package sent directly from the factory was crumbs illustrates well the severe weakness of their packaging. It is harder to endorse the product knowing that consumers are likely to get less than their money’s worth out of a bag (thanks to breakage).
That said, the Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle tastes wonderful and is possibly the most chocolatey Brownie Brittle Sheila G’s makes.
Basics
Redefining the nature of traditional brownies, Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle are 1/8" thick and, when unbroken, they are 2 1/2” long by 2” wide rectangular “chips” (or cookies). Each piece of Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle is fairly rough on both sides, like the bottom of a brownie that has been very much overcooked to solidify with the bubbles from the batter. Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle comes in a 4 oz. bag. According to the nutrition facts, a serving of Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle is one ounce, 28 grams and there are four servings per container. Measuring out this bag was virtually impossible from the breakage. I had to weigh out the Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle and I got three and a half very, very broken up servings and another half-ounce of just pulverized crumbs.
For those who have never had Brownie Brittle before, Brownie Brittle are flat, hard chips that are similar to bagel chips. Moisture - or saliva - dissolves Brownie Brittle on the tongue. They are more like a thin cookie than a soft, chewy brownie and in even from the well-protected bag sent directly from the company, the vast majority of the pieces of Brownie Brittle were broken up bits. The Salted Caramel Brownie Bites have the actual caramel chips embedded in the tops of the Brownie Brittle. They actually look like they are melted onto the tops. Some of the pieces have as few as one caramel chip, some as many as eight!
Ease Of Preparation
Unlike making brownies from scratch, Brownie Brittle is easy to prepare. Simply open the resealable bag and remove four pieces (if there are that many not broken up into tiny pieces in the bag) and consume. There is no other preparation needed; this is a ready-to-eat product. As one who absolutely loves the end of cereal (cereal crumbs), I found a certain delight in taking the crumbs at the bottom of the bag, adding milk to it and eating it like cereal crumbs! This flavor is like eating the bottom of a bowl of Cocoa Puffs!
Taste
Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle smells just like fresh-baked brownies. The aroma is strong and distinct and there is no hint of anything to the scent these brownie brittle pieces emit except for chocolate and cocoa. The scent is inviting and familiar to anyone who loves brownies.
On the taste front, the Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle is intensely chocolatey. The top of each has a tang of saltiness that manages to accent the chocolate beautifully. The salty accent comes from the bits of caramel and the hard chips of caramel carry the salty, slightly buttery flavor over the chocolate. The blending makes for a dry, powerfully chocolate cookie flavor that is recognizable and delicious.
The caramel cuts some of the dryness of the cookie, though it makes the chocolate of the brownie seem like it is made of a darker chocolate. The flavors blend perfectly and the ultimate flavor that the Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle finishes with is a dark chocolate flavor; like super-concentrated, dry, chocolate. This is not at all unpleasant, but the caramel flavor is definitely more subtle than prominent; it accents the chocolate flavor as opposed to augmenting the Brownie Brittle with a strong flavor of its own.
Nutrition
Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle is a baked sweet, so one ought not to be living off it. The Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle pieces are made primarily of sugar, enriched bleached wheat flour, and cocoa. There are, surprisingly, no unidentifiable ingredients in this food product and nothing that seems at all artificial (in fact, this is one of the few mass-produced product I have reviewed where the ingredients list reads more like a recipe than a chemical equation!). The bag of Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle carries an allergy warning for wheat, eggs, soy, and milk. It is also noted that this Brownie Brittle was made on machinery that also processes tree nuts.
Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle has 120 calories per serving, 35 of which are from fat, though it is very tough to stick with the somewhat nebulous serving size of 28 grams. The 4 grams of fat represent 6% of the recommended daily value of fat and 5% of the daily recommended saturated fat; there are no trans fats in this Brownie Brittle. As well, there are 115 milligrams of sodium and 14 grams of sugars (21 total grams of carbohydrates). There is a gram of protein and 4% of one’s RDA of Iron in a serving of Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle, but there are no other real nutrients in these.
These are not nutritious, but have nothing bad in them, so they make for a healthier sweet snack, though they are not Vegan compliant.
Storage/Clean-up
The Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle stores just fine in its bag, breakage aside, and as long as they are kept in a cool, dry (preferably dark) place it ought to last for a few months. The bag I received a couple of days ago, directly from the company bore a November 1, 2014 expiration date.
Unless one really crunches down sloppily on these, cleanup ought not to be an issue. The Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle generates a ton of crumbs, but they are pretty easy to clean up.
Overall
Sheila G’s Salted Caramel Brownie Brittle are flavorful and chocolatey, but not a great value because of how much breakage the bags encourage. Those who want a delicious chocolate cookie will find these are a decent treat!
For other Sheila G’s products, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Toffee Crunch Brownie Brittle
Mint Chocolate Chip Brownie Brittle
Chocolate Chip Brownie Brittle
7/10
For other food or drink reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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