The South has forever been abundant in farmlands rolling with peaches, pecans, watermelon, and okra—but no crop might be quite so Southern as the humble peanut. If there was a designated Peanut Country, we’d be smack in the middle of it, with nearly 45 percent of peanuts grown in Georgia and the remainder throughout the South, particularly in Alabama and Texas.
So it comes to no surprise that some of the South’s most old-fashioned candies found in roadside stores, as well as your grandmother’s kitchen, chose the beloved peanut as the star of the sugary show. Seriously, Southerners can’t get enough of them—peanut brittle, Goo Goo Clusters, peanut chews, Chick-O-Sticks®, and one of our personal favorites: a lesser-known candy called Peanut Patties made popular thanks to a candy company in Tyler, Texas.
Similar to peanut brittle, but with a slightly chewier texture underneath the hard caramelized shell (especially when homemade), Peanut Patties are made with simple ingredients like light corn syrup, sugar, butter, vanilla extract, and evaporated milk; and they are the most popular candy product made by small-town confection company Tyler Candy (located, you guessed it, in Tyler, Texas), which started in 1941 and still uses the peanut patty-making machine patented by the founder.
When seeing the sweet, nutty patty in person for the first time, you’ll wonder why it is not brown, but actually a pinkish-red color—that comes from cooking down the peanut skins in the sugar-corn syrup mixture, though some Southern cooks have been known to add a drop or two of food coloring to further enhance the trademark shade. (If the South’s beloved pastel gelatin salads don’t already make it clear, we don’t judge.)
Brittle lovers won’t be able to get enough of this unique take on the old-school nut candy, so might as well make a double batch.
