Home At Last! with Patty Gironda

        My experiement with my peanut clusters didn't give me the results I had hoped for. The nuts and chocolate were good but the caramel was from a vendor I had never tried. I think next time I would rather use my own recipe. I found the caramel to be lackluster in depth and robust flavor. The ratio of salt to sugar was off. My original thoughts for the filling were more towards the nougat texture and it looks like it's back to the drawing board! Oh, darn-who will ever eat all this chocolate!

        This recipe yields a favorite snack in the Gironda household. Simple to make with a recipe that can easily make larger batches for a party or to store in the pantry. I use it for other things besides a snack-including candy. I am working on a chocolate-covered peanut chew with a praline filling. For the peanuts: The raw peanuts are boiled for ten minutes with dried red pepper and equal parts water, honey and cane syrup (or in my case equal parts molasses and cane syrup.) Once boiled, the peanuts are strained and tossed in a dry seasoning mixture comprised of three sugars; white, light brown and dark brown sugar seasoned with paprika, onion and garlic powder, turmeric, curry, cumin, dark chili powder and kosher salt. Once coated they are spread on parchment paper for thirty to forty minutes in a 200 degree oven. After they cool they are removed to a covered container where they are once again tossed with the dry mixture and more kosher salt. Finally I pl...