This recipe takes caramel, places it atop pecans, and heats it slightly in the oven to quickly add caramel to the pecans. It is important to watch the caramel in the oven carefully. The caramel should just settle and be smooth. Wrinkles in the caramel indicate that the caramel was left in too long, giving the soft caramel a hard, brittle texture instead of a chewy texture. When coating the caramel, feel free to use milk chocolate or dark chocolate. If using real chocolate (ingredient list will list cocoa butter and/or cocoa liquor), then the chocolate should be tempered, or the chocolate will remain tacky or have streaks throughout.
Click here to learn more about tempering chocolate. Instructions
Heat oven to 300°. Butter a 9” x 13” pan. Thickly cover the bottom of the pan with pecan pieces.
Cut pieces of prepared caramel or Basic Caramel Recipe and roll into 1” balls. Slightly flatten. Place flattened balls on pecans about 1/2” apart from each other (not all flattened balls will fit at one time).
Put into oven for about 2 minutes or until caramel “just” smooths itself and pecans stick to slightly melted caramel. Remove from the oven.
When the caramel cools, place the caramel with pecans onto parchment paper or silicone mat. Melt candy coating or melt and temper chocolate. Top each cluster with melted chocolate using a spoon or squeeze bottle. (If using real chocolate, chocolate must be spooned on top.)
Note: Make sure the caramel is covered completely with chocolate, or the caramel will likely ooze and stick to anything around.
Push remaining pecans in pan together, add more caramel flattened balls and soften in oven. Repeat until all the caramel is gone.
