Martha Mondays: Chocolate Caramel Pecan Clusters

Happy Monday, friends! I participated in another edition of Martha Mondays, and it was my turn to pick a recipe so I chose Martha's Chocolate Caramel Pecan Clusters. Because I LOVE turtles!













The strange thing.... I didn't care for these too much. First of all, I think the pecans tasted a bit burnt, and I didn't even toast them the full ten minutes, more like eight minutes at first. Next time I would probably only toast the crushed pecans that would be used for topping. I would just put them in the oven to 'toast' while melting the caramel and chocolate on them. No need to do the initial toast too, because they are already getting toasted for 5 minutes with the caramels, and then another 2 minutes with the chocolate.

I also thought that once refrigerated and allowed to set, the caramel was too hard to chew. I didn't like that texture. I think I would have preferred the texture when it came right out of the oven... warm and soft and chewy, not hard and crunchy.

Chocolate Caramel Pecan Clusters

adapted from Martha Stewart

• 36 whole pecans + 1/4 cup crushed pecan pieces, for topping
• 12 caramel squares
• 12 dark chocolate Hershey kisses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange pecans in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, toast in oven, until fragrant, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven (leave oven on). Let cool.


Make 12 clusters by arranging 2 pecans vertically, side by side, above one pecan placed horizontally. Gently flatten each caramel and place one on top of each cluster. Bake clusters 5 minutes. Remove from oven (leave oven on). 


Place 1 Hershey kiss on each cluster. Return to the oven and bake until chocolate melts, about 2 minutes. Remove from oven. With a knife, cut off the tip of each chocolate kiss and then spread chocolate but so that caramel still shows.


Sprinkle clusters with reserved chopped pecans. Refrigerate until set, at least 15 minutes. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Printable Recipe

They are so stinkin adorable though, aren't they? They look like little turtles :)

Unfortunately though, they are not as good as I was expecting. In my opinion, they look better than they taste. PJ isn't too fond of pecans anyways so he wasn't really digging them either, and since I also wasn't fully digging them I can understand why, especially since I am the one who loves pecans, choc, and caramel.

The recipe is simple enough; it only requires chopping some of the pecans and flattening the caramels and besides that it's so easy!

Hey, at least I like alot of my pictures!

Peace, and bacon grease!