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About the Recipe
Ingredients
Baking Chips – a combination of semi-sweet or dark chocolate and butterscotch chips creates the perfect rich flavor.
Peanuts – unsalted, roasted peanuts are my favorite.
Preparation
Melt chocolate – temper – stir in peanuts, cashews, whatever nuts you like. Drop onto wax paper.
Sooooo easy!
WORKING WITH CHOCOLATE
Always start with good chocolate; a good chocolate will have a “smooth melt” – no noticeable grain when melted on the tongue. Never add anything to the chocolate (paraffin, oil, etc.).
Break chocolate into small pieces, or buy small chocolate pieces. Keep away from moisture (i.e.
steam) when melting. In an oven, put the chocolate in a bowl/pan, place in the oven and set the
temperature to the lowest possible setting and close the door.
Check every few minutes to make
sure the bowl is not getting too hot. To test, place your bare hand on the side of the bowl.
If it’s
too warm to leave your hand there, remove the bowl from the oven with hot pads and stir the
chocolate until the bowl cools, then return it to the oven if necessary.
May want to turn the oven
off; just let chocolate melt slowly in the warm oven.
Be sure to stir chocolate fairly often as it
melts.
Chocolate can also be melted in a microwave, but milk chocolate can scorch rather easily.
Melt
on 50% power or lower. You can also use a double-boiler, but this is lots o’ work. If you have a
lot of time
You can put a bowl of chocolate in an oven with a pilot light; it’ll melt overnight (or
thereabouts). A slow/low crock pot will also work.
“Tempering” is the process of mixing and cooling chocolate to get it ready for dipping/coating
candy.
Stir in bowl, or pour into a cold electric frying pan or marble slab and make “S” motions
through the chocolate.
Continue mixing and cooling until chocolate feels cool to the touch.
Dip or
coat candies.
When working with chocolate, your room temperature should be no higher than
70º.
Chocolate can be remelted many times as long as there is no moisture present and it hasn’t
been scorched.
How to Store and Freeze
Once the peanut clusters are completely set, they can be stored either at room temperature or in the fridge up to 2 weeks. I prefer to keep them in the fridge so the chocolate doesn’t melt. To store them, line them in an airtight container with pieces of parchment or wax paper between each layer.
To freeze them, let them harden completely, then transfer them to an airtight container with pieces of parchment or wax paper between each layer if you’re stacking them. They will last in the freezer for up to 3 months.