Chocolate Covered Cashews (2024)

These dark chocolate cashew clusters with sea salt are made with 3 ingredients and are delicious! Chocolate covered cashews are an easy & healthy treat for the holidays.

We enjoy Christmas so much, ever year I wish I could slow down time and make December last forever. We especially love making Christmas treats, like these dark chocolate cashew clusters.

When it comes to candy, I am about as plane-Jane as they come. You’ll usually find me reaching for pure dark chocolate, or some sort of nut covered in dark chocolate.

One of my all-time favorites aresea salt dark chocolate covered cashews from a store in Chicago.

Since we no longer live in Illinois, I recreated many of my favorite candies that I can find here in Utah, like these chocolate peanut clusters, these homemade peanut butter cups), and these chocolate cashew clusters!

Made with only three ingredients, they’re the perfect combination of sweet and salty. They’re a delicious holiday treat for anyone on your guest list because they’re vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free and can also be paleo & refined sugar free too.

How to make Chocolate Covered Cashews

This recipe only has three ingredients, so it’s fairly simple, but here are a few tips to get them just right! I chose to make clusters instead of individually covered each cashew for the sake of time and sanity!

1. Temper the chocolate.I discovered a method of tempering chocolatein the microwave that has changed my candy-making life. Simply warm the chocolate for 60 seconds, then 60 more untilalmostall the of it is melted. Then stir until it’s completely smooth and let it cool back down to 90 degrees F before using it in the recipe! This method has resulted in the most beautifully shiny chocolate with the best texture! If you don’t really care about shine, you can simply melt the chocolate and proceed with the recipe, however I think it’s totally worth it.
2. Size.Be mindful of the size of yourDark Chocolate Sea Salt Cashew Clusters! At first I used a 1 TBS measure to make the clusters but they were much too large for my liking! So I switched to 1/2 TBS and they were perfect! Choose a size that you love!
3. Topping.Be sure to sprinkle the sea salt on as soon as you form the cluster on the waxed paper! If you wait too long you run the risk of the clusters hardening and the sea salt not sticking!

Store/freeze

Once the chocolate covered cashews are hardened, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week, in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 2 months. Serve room temperature or slightly chilled.

Recipe FAQs

Chocolate covered cashews: ingredients & substitutions

There are only three ingredients here, but there actually are a couple substitutions that can be made!

• Dark Chocolate.If you’re used to sweeter treats I’d recommend using a chocolate that is in the 60-70% dark range. To make this recipe paleo, use unsweetened chocolate and add 1-2 TBS of honey or maple syrup (to taste) when it’s melted in the microwave. This will ensure your coating is refined-sugar free. You can also use paleo chocolate (listed below).
• Cashews.Any nut can be used in this recipe. The two I recommend most highly are cashews and almonds. I prefer salted nuts.
• Sea salt.I really don’t think this ingredient is optional. I use this flaky sea salt and love it. You can also add crushed cashews or festive sprinkles to the top.

Healthier Chocolate

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out which chocolate chips are Paleo, dairy-free, etc. So here are some of my favorite healthier chocolate options.

• Hu Kitchen Chocolate Gems.This is my favorite paleo chocolate. These gems are delicious and easy to toss into cookies (no bar chopping required).
• Hu Kitchen Dark Chocolate Bars. You can also buy dark chocolate bars and chop them up to toss into these paleo chocolate chip cookies.
• Lily’s Dark Chocolate. They make chips and bars that are stevia sweetened, low carb, keto, etc.
• Enjoy Life Foods Dark Chocolate Chipsare a good option that are vegan, dairy-free but not fully paleo.

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There is no way you will be able to eat just one of theseDark Chocolate Sea Salt Cashew Clusters {I know from experience}! 😉