Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I made these the other day - fantastic!
NOTE: I kept the heat at 240 F and used double the amount of chocolate. Also made some with lightly salted peanuts.

PECAN AND CARAMEL CHOCOLATE CLUSTERS

From the poster: "...Biting into one of these clusters and tasting that silky caramel stretch out from under the chocolate...
...I ended up with quite a bit of extra caramel when I prepared this recipe, from a Ghirardelli chocolate wrapper. I definitely used a generous hand when dolloping out the caramel. Evidently I was even more generous when it came to the chocolate, as I actually had to double up on that in order to cover all twenty-four pieces to my liking..."

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup pecan halves
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup (I used light)
1 cup butter
1 cup heavy whipping cream
6 oz. milk chocolate baking bars, melted (I used 12 oz Dove)

DIRECTIONS:

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.

Cut the pecans in half lengthwise and arrange to form small circles (about 1 1/2″ in diameter).

Cook the sugar, dark corn syrup, butter and 1/2 cup of cream in a saucepan. Stir occasionally over low heat, until the sugar has dissolved. Increase heat to medium and stir continuously until the temperature reaches 240°F (NOTE: This may take 15-20 min).

Remove the pan from heat and stir in the remaining cream. Heat again and stir continuously until the temperature reaches 245°F.

Pour the caramel mixture into a 9″ pan lined with foil and let it cool approximately 2 minutes. Spoon caramel mixture over each pecan circle.

Melt chocolate according to the melting instructions for your chocolate. Spread melted chocolate over each cluster. Chill 10 minutes, then let stand at room temperature until the chocolate is firm.

Store tightly covered at room temperature. (I keep them chilled).

Yields 24 pieces

From Ghirardelli Pecan and Caramel Chocolate Clusters recipe inside the Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Baking Bar wrapper
http://cookingontheside.com/homemade-ca ... -clusters/

OMG! Yummm

Ha! I knew you'd pop up! How's it going, Nancy?
Warning: These are really dangerous - it's hard to stop eating them!

Milk chocolate baking bars? How are those different from milk chocolate in general? I have 5 kilo bars of so-called Filipino dark chocolate, which is actually half way between milk chocolate and true dark chocolate. Do you think a few ounces of that might suffice? We use the semi-dark (for want of a better term) to make candy in place of the milk chocolate here which has very little rich chocolate taste. I would like to try this, particularly as the entertaining/party season is approaching.

Don't worry about the term "Baking bar." It's just a term. Use any kind of milk or dark chocolate you wish. I used Dove milk chocolate bars for this particular recipe, which is my favorite brand of milk chocolate (I also like Valrhona). Although, in general, bittersweet chocolate is my favorite, I prefer milk chocolate when combined with caramel. Also, instead of spreading the chocolate over the clusters, I coated them completely.

If you try these, let me know how they turn out!

Meryl

hey Meryl,
I'm doing well. Might be a much larger size if I make those candies But then it may well be worth it. I hope all is well with you. Take care