Thursday, January 12, 2012

Caramelized Chocolate Covered Nuts

Going nuts over nuts. One of my favorite [and actually easiest] things to make are chocolate covered nuts. But why stop there. Nuts are great not only for their flavor, but also for their crunchy texture. When you cover the nuts in a hard caramel shell first you add even more crunchy texture and make this sweet snack more delicious and extraordinary. Its a sweet surprise in every bite! Plus, in this recipe, you don't need to temper your chocolate, so its not very time consuming!

Caramelized Chocolate Covered Nuts

2/3 c sugar
1 c nuts [UNTOASTED]
1 tbsp butter
1 # chocolate
powdered sugar as needed

1. combine sugar and nuts in a large saucepan and cook over high heat, stirring constantly
2. once the sugar is almost completely dissolved, add in the butter and continue to stir
3. cook the caramel and nuts until they are a golden caramel color, then turn off heat and pour onto a sheetpan lined with parchment paper [or foil or wax paper]
4. allow the nuts to completely cool and break any large pieces into smaller ones- place nuts in a container and put in the freezer
5. Melt chocolate slowly, either in the microwave or on a double boiler. once completely melted, remove from heat and allow to cool off
6. Once the nuts are very cold, place them into a LARGE mixing bowl and pour some chocolate over top and, using a wooden spoon, mix chocolate over nuts. the chocolate will begin to set quickly because the nuts are cold. continue to stir until the chocolate is completely set, it will be very dull
7. continue adding chocolate and sitrring until all of the nuts have been covered completely. If you want a thin shell of chocolate, only do a few coats- if you prefer a lot of chocolate, keep going as long as you want.
8. mix chocolate covered nuts with powdered sugar and then  sift off the excess. you can do as many coats as you want  for this step. [you can also use cocoa powder instead of powdered sugar if you want]
SERVE.
 
nuts and sugar
Sugar beginning to melt and clump to nuts

Add the butter to make caramel
Caramelized nuts!!
Pour out! now cover in chocolate!

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