Pecan Clusters

By Jessica Segarra

Prep Time:

10m

Bake/Cook Time:

30m

Yield:

15-20 candies

Soft caramels mixed with toasted pecans come together in these Pecan Clusters. Sweet, nutty, and buttery all rolled into one bite. Wrap them up as an edible gift. This gluten-free 7-ingredient candy recipe is quick and easy, just be careful as the liquid candy is very hot.

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Products Used

Light Brown Sugar Poly Bag

Ingredients

1 cup Dixie Crystals Light Brown Sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup toasted chopped pecans

Directions

Add parchment paper, or a silicone baking mat, to a cookie sheet and set aside.
In a high-sided pot over medium-high heat, add brown sugar, light corn syrup, and kosher salt. Stir mixture to help dissolve sugar into corn syrup. Make sure to keep slowly stirring as you do not want any hot spots in pan to burn sugar.
Once mixture starts to gently bubble, and sugar has dissolved, VERY SLOWLY drizzle in heavy creamy while continually stirring. You do not want mixture to stop bubbling, so you must drizzle this cold heavy creamy in very slowly.
When all heavy cream has been added, add in butter while continually stirring.
Continue gently stirring until mixture has reached 245°F on a candy or instant-read thermometer, about 15-20 minutes.
Once mixture has reached 245°F, remove from heat and quickly stir in vanilla extract and toasted chopped pecans.
Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out caramel nut mixture onto prepared parchment paper pan. Caramel will run a little, this is ok.
Once all mixture has been scooped you can now go back to candy and gently smoosh it up so it’s taller than wide. You can also let it sit a little bit before scooping, BUT then you have to work extra quickly so it does not get too set up.

Dixie Crystals Insight

Make sure to prep all the ingredients before starting as you MUST stir caramel while it cooks so it does not burn. Having all ingredients ready to go is a must.
Use a high-sided pot as the mixture will bubble up a bit and you do not want to risk boiling over or hot candy splashes.
Jessica used a small OXO cookie scoop, which is 1 tablespoon.
Recipe developed for Dixie Crystals by Jessica Segarra @TheNoviceChef.