A perfect holiday gift that goes together in 10 minutes, these chocolate nut clusters taste delicious, and let you personalize to your heart’s content!!
Of course it they are vegan AND paleo too, and easily made low carb and keto!
These salted chocolate clusters are a real treat!
This recipe is SO darn easy…even my kids can make these all by themselves!
You will love these beautiful candies and have fun coming up with your own variations.
I especially love that with minimal effort, I get to eat a candy that has quality ingredients and less sugar than their processed counterparts. Every time I make my healthy peanut butter cups, I wonder why ANYONE would eat a Reese’s!
What kind of chocolate should I use to make these chocolate nut clusters?
In this recipe, I have used some unsweetened chocolate to further reduce the sugar and make an exceptionally dark chocolate.
However, you can use any chocolate you like….milk, semisweet, dark, or homemade, or low carb! It will all work…do it to your sweet preference!
Why Fair Trade Certified Chocolate is Important:
Whatever chocolate you choose, please select a Fair Trade Certified Chocolate. In this way, we can be sure our treats are NOT being created on the backs of children and their impoverished families. Please read more about why I choose Fair Trade Certified chocolate here. Or another great article here.
A couple of my favorite brands I regularly buy (there ARE MORE, LOOK FOR THE “FAIR TRADE CERTIFIED” LOGO):
Can I make a keto or low carb variation?
If you follow a keto diet or are watching your carbs this holiday season, there is no reason you can not enjoy a treat too!! Here are the options with this recipe:
- Make your own keto chocolate! Cocoa butter is SO magical….I try and find ways to use it everywhere! It’s important to by fairly sourced, food grade, quality cocoa butter, I really like this one. Castaway Kitchen has a recipe using cocoa butter you could try!
- Lily’s Sweet Stevia Sweetened chocolate is really amazing and can be used in all it’s forms!! I use it all the time and it is my favorite!
- Skip the dried fruits and stick to lower carb additions (nuts and seeds, cocoa nibs, toasted coconut, etc).
Add in options for these homemade chocolate candies:
These clusters are infinitely adaptable! Here are some ideas of things you could try to create your own special version!
- Any nuts (pecans, macadamia)
- Seeds (hemp, sunflower)
- Crystallized ginger
- diced soft dried mango
- rice crispy style cereal
- favorite granola
More homemade paleo candy recipes:
- My Vegan Chocolate Truffles have mint too to recreate a candy from my childhood: The Frango Mint! Quick, easy, and decadent.
- My healthy homemade mounds bars have always been popular…it was my copycat attempt at a Coconut Secret Bar!
- Raspberry Chocolate Truffles are made from scratch and have a vibrant raspberry flavor!
- Who needs to go to the candy aisle when you can make your own HEALTHIER Twix right at home?!
Salted Chocolate Nut Clusters Recipe:
If you whip these healthy candies up, be sure to come back and leave a comment and let us know what YOU added!
10 Minute Paleo Salted Dark Chocolate Nut & Fruit Clusters
Ingredients
- 9 ounces dark chocolate
- 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate (this reduces the sugar content further for an extra dark chocolate. For a low carb version, you could use ALL unsweetened chocolate and sweeten to taste using stevia and erythritol). Otherwise, use more dark chocolate!
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil or palm shortening
- 1 1/2 cups toasted nuts I used whole roasted almonds
- 1/2 cup whole dried cranberries or cherries, to taste
- flaked sea salt
Instructions
- Melt your chocolate and palm shortening. I use a microwave or the stove top. It is important when using a microwave not to burn your chocolate and cause it to seize. I heat for 1 minute and 30 seconds, and if necessary, additional 30 second increments. Notice the picture how there are still visible chunks of chocolate, but some visible melted chocolate as well. From here, you continue to stir it until smooth and fully melted.
- Stir in your nuts and fruit of choice. There should be no additional chocolate pooling in the bottom of the bowl, add more nuts and fruit if necessary.
- Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a wax paper or parchment lined cookie sheet. I use my beloved silicon baking sheets! Shape as necessary.
- Sprinkle with a touch of coarse sea salt.
- Place the pan into the freezer to hasten hardening.
Nutrition
Love the idea of adding cranberries into the mixture. This will give exact taste I was looking for.
I really like your idea of using Lily’s to make these!! My son is sensitive to most sweeteners, so this will keep him balanced while still getting a treat!
The cranberry addition is such a great idea! This is such an easy one to make with kids or for a party tray! Thank you!
Sounds fabulous! My queue of things to make keeps getting longer.
My family, friends, and I all LOVE these. I used the Enjoy Life Semi Sweet Baking Chunks and they worked great. I love Tessa’s recipe here because, unlike other candy recipes I’ve followed, these are SO easy to make and they are aesthetically pleasing, as well. I’ve tried making other candy and it didn’t look appetizing at all. I’ve used this recipe of Tessa’s three or four times now to keep candy around the house when I have a chocolate craving and to give as gifts, too. I’ve made it with roasted peanuts (for a NOT paleo version), roasted salted hazlenuts (my personal favorite – to die for), and little energy mounds with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cranberries, and goldenberries. My sister and my best friend liked those ones the best. Thank you, Tessa! I appreciate you!
so many amazing combos you’ve tried!! Thanks for sharing all your ideas!!
Okay, I have to make these, too! They look delicious. My daughter has tree nut allergies, but I bet these would still be good with peanuts as well! Thanks for the recipe π
Made these today…do you have to store them in the freezer, or just harden them in the freezer?
Storing in the freezer or fridge will lengthen the time they last, but left on the counter a for a few days is fine too Sherri!
Thanks! They are delicious!!!!
the most important part Sherri, darned if I don’t want one right now!
I made these as a Christmas gift for my brother, and they were delicious! I chose toasted pecans and cashews for the nuts. Yum!
thanks for letting me know Angie! Glad you enjoyed them.
These sound so good, and I love how wholesome they are. They look delicious too!
These look incredible, Tessa!! Perfect holiday treat.
And I’m so sorry the Linky wasn’t working again tonight! I’m not sure what the problem is. . . but have contacted the site adiminstrator and hopefully it will be all clear from now on. It’s up and running–hope you’ll head back to link up. π
And have a wonderful holiday!!
Hugs,
Ricki
Lovely, you’re making me hungry Tessa!
Those are fun! SO easy and I love the sprinkle of salt for balance. Perfect little treat to whip up if I need to bring something with me but don’t have the time to bake.
Oooohhh.. these look good! I have a very similar recipe but with caramel. I’ll have to try your sea salt and cranberry version!!! Thanks π