Christmas Party food should always include homemade candy. These Sweet & Salty Chocolate Caramel Nut Clusters are the perfect addition to any holiday celebration.
Today is Day Four of our 12 Days of Christmas Ideas are nearly 40 bloggers are sharing their Holiday Party Food Ideas!
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Sweet & Salty Chocolate Caramel Nut Clusters Recipe
We make our Caramel from scratch in this nut clusters recipe! You can do it too with our easy recipe. Grab your candy thermometer and lets get started! Scroll down for the printable recipe.
Begin by preparing your baking pans with parchment paper. Then cluster the nuts before you begin making the caramel. We made both Cashew and Pecan Nut Clusters but you can choose whichever one you prefer the most or use both also!
Cooking the Caramel will take around twenty minutes with constant stirring so be prepared.
Be sure to cover every nut with caramel when you begin to drizzle it on. The caramel is the glue which makes the nuts into clusters.
After melting the the chocolate in the microwave you’ll spoon it onto the caramel. Allow to set for about 20 minutes.
Because we want that delectable Sweet & Salty crunchy combo and the pecans are unsalted, we sprinkle them with Sea Salt after spooning the chocolate on top. Go ahead and grab our Sweet & Salty Candied Pecans recipe! They are great as a party food, snack and even on salads.
- 2½ Cups unsalted Pecans
- 2½ Cups lightly salted whole cashews
- 2 Cups packed light brown sugar
- 1 Cup light corn syrup
- 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
- 12 oz. milk chocolate chips
- 1 Cup (2 Sticks) Unsalted Butter (not margarine)
- 1 tsp. shortening
- 1 tsp. caramel extract
- Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Toast the pecans in a skillet over medium heat for several minutes. Stir frequently. This whole process will take less than 5 minutes. Stay with it, they burn easily.
- Arrange pecans onto the parchment paper in clusters of three.
- Arrange 4 or 5 whole cashews onto parchment paper in small clusters
- Time to make the Caramel
- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Add the brown sugar, corn syrup and sweetened condensed milk stirring constantly
- Reduce the heat and continue to stir until it reaches Soft-ball stage between 234°-240°
- Remove from heat and stir in the caramel extract
- Drizzle the caramel over the prepared nuts
- Melt the milk chocolate chips in the microwave at 30 second intervals stirring after each interval
- Add the shortening to the melted milk chocolate and stir to dissolve
- Carefully pour the melted chocolate on top of the caramel covered nuts.
- Allow the chocolate to set.
- Serve and enjoy!
Be sure to visit our fellow 12 Days of Christmas Bloggers below for even more creative ideas this holiday season!
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LAMusing says
Oh my gosh – those look AMAZING! mmmmmmm…..
Kelly says
Well these look mouth watering and delicious! You can’t beat the chocolate-caramel combination 🙂
Best,
Kelly
Sherlyn says
How much butter?
Shirley Wood says
2 Sticks unsalted butter. (1 Cup) Thank you for asking. I have updated the recipe to include that info.
Amber Harrop says
These sound delicious Shirley I love Nut, caramel and chocolate together
Marilyn Lesniak says
Congratulations! Your post was my feature pick at #WWBlogHop this week. Visit me at https://www.marilynstreats.com on Tuesday evening to see your feature! All hosts choose their own features from the comments left on their blog so be sure to stop by and see your feaure. I invite you to leave more links to be shared and commented upon. Please be sure to leave your link number or post title so we can be sure to visit!
Leanna says
I think these look delicious I like that the nuts are sticking out of them so you see what your eating. Lots of nuts yummy.
Tania says
Those even LOOK pretty!!
Tania
Jenny says
These look delicious & amazing!
Beverly says
These are definitely going on my to make list for the holidays! Delicious! I love the sweet and salty combo, too.
Lauren says
Shirley these look DIVINE!! I definitely pinned this – mainly because they look so good AND easy to make. Love that you could use any type of nuts you want on these. Salty and sweet — is there anything better???