Easy Crockpot Candy | The Best Christmas Treats

If you love Christmas treats that are quick and easy, and still delicious then crockpot candy is the perfect Christmas treat for you!

If you’re here from Amanda of Sincerely, Marie Designs thanks so much for coming!

Don’t her cookies look amazing!

My daughter took one look at her beautiful pictures and decided we need to make them.

And I’m pretty excited about it because I love all things European inspired.

European Christmas decor.

Modern European farmhouse entryway.

I’m all things European Farmhouse style over here!

Why Crockpot Candy?

So I’ve seen these Christmas treats for a couple of years now.

But I never considered making them until this year.

I talked about my fears in the kitchen in a recent blog post, and so trying a new recipe was the last thing I wanted to do.

But with some new realizations about myself and how I “tick”, I’ve actually been trying to intentionally make new recipes.

The fun thing about this new adventure has been not only making new recipes, but then tweaking them and making the recipes all my own.

Just as a side note, if you are like me and have more fears then excitment when you step into the kitchen, I recommend making the same recipe a couple times.

Make tweaks to it to make it better each time.

Somehow making a recipe all my own has helpped me feel more confident in the kitchen.

This has even translated when attempting a completley new recipe.

Anyway, back to the crockpot candy.

My favorite treats are the treats with a combination of peanuts, peanut butter, and chocolate.

Puppy Chow.

Buckeyes.

Peanut butter cups.

When I remembered these, I convinced myself that they were healthier for me because they have peanuts haha!

Does anyone else do that, or am I alone on this one?

The other thing I loved about this recipe was how easy it was.

It’s literally one of the easiest treats I’ve ever made.

Not to mention delicious!

After these are finished anyone who sees them sitting out grabs one, and then another, and a third for the road.

(Which is also good for my confidence in the kitchen!)

CAN YOU FREEZE CROCKPOT CANDY?

Yes, you can freeze crockpot candy!

In fact, after they set on the counter I put them directly into a ziplock bag.

One bag goes to the freezer, and the other goes to the fridge.

They last longer when you put them in you put them the freezer.

Not only due to the cold, but also because they aren’t out in the open haha!

HOW LONG WILL HOMEMADE CROCKPOT CANDY LAST?

In my experience they don’t last very long because people want to eat them.

But if they aren’t eaten immediately by your friends and family they can last up to 2-3 weeks in the fridge, and longer in the freezer.

WHAT INGREDIENTS DO I NEED FOR CROCKPOT CANDY?

As I mentioned above, this is my tweaked version of peanut clusters.

There is no right or wrong way to make these.

If you look at my ingredient list below and decide you don’t like peanut butter as much as me, or maybe you love semi-sweet chocolate the best, BY ALL MEANS ADJUST!

As long as you have the same basic ratio of nut to chocolate and you don’t omit the vanilla/almond bark then your peanut clusters will turn out AMAZING!

(The vanilla/almond bark helps the crockpot candy set up.)

• 32oz mixed nuts (I used my favorite mixed nut variety from Aldi, but you can use any nut you prefer)
• 2 bags of milk chocolate chips
• 2 bags of peanut butter chips
• 24oz vanilla or almond bark

HOW DO YOU MAKE CROCKPOT CANDY?

Step 1.

Dump all ingredients into a crockpot.

I broke up my vanilla bark into little squares, to help it melt faster.

But I’m sure it would be fine if you didn’t do this.

Step 2.

Turn the crockpot on low for 2 hours.

Step 3.

For the first hour let the ingredients sit, allowing the chocolate and peanut butter chips melt.

Step 4.

For the second hour begin stirring the mixture every 15 minutes.

Doing this will help make sure that the chocolate doesn’t start to burn.

Step 5.

Set parchment paper down on the counter.

Once everything is melted and the nuts are covered well you can begin scooping out small spoonfuls of the mixture and placing them on the parchment paper.

You can use mini muffin tins and liners if you would rather.

I did this the first time I made this recipe, but I struggled with how thick it made the clusters.

I prefer them the spread out a bit and be thinner.

This recipe makes many peanut cluster, so if you have space you can put the parchment paper on a cookie sheet to immediately place them in the freezer.

But as a general rule, our freezer is crammed full.

So I just leave the little chocolate nut clusters on the counter until they’re set.

Then I throw them in a ziplock bag and put them in the freezer or fridge.

Step 6.

If you have little kiddos in your life this final step is an absolute MUST!

To my children everything is better when it has sprinkles or sparkles.

So we added sprinkles to the top of our nut clusters while the chocolate mixture was still wet.

PRO TIP FROM MY 5 YEAR-OLD

While we were scooping out the peanut clusters and adding the sprinkles my sweet daughter said, “We don’t have to waste the sprinkles that fall on the paper. We can just eat them plain!”.

So don’t waste the sprinkles on the parchment paper that missed the crockpot candy!!

Eat them plain haha!

Well that’s it for this super simple recipe!

I hope you try it, but what I hope more is that you turn it into your own recipe.

Now make sure you head to KariAnne’s creative slice and bake cookie recipe.

I love everything she does, and I know you’re going to love her too!

Pin for Later!

Don’t forget to head over to Facebook or Instagram and see more of the day-to-day activities around here!

Also, make sure you follow along on Pinterest to check out all the other Christmas inspiration I’ve been pinning for this year!

Have a great week! XoXo

Open Your Doors,
Aliya

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