Sweet Nut Clusters Recipe For Your Sweeties
On our last major hike, I purchased from Costco a bag of Cashew Clusters. And, as with all new foods, I looked at the ingredients and say to myself: I can make that! ha ha. So, that is what I did. Not saying you can’t make this another way, but I wanted to copy the package exactly! The ingredients on the bag were:
Cashews, Almonds, Cane Sugar, Pumpkin Seed Kernels, Rice Syrup, Sea Salt and Honey.
I purchased some cashew pieces, almonds, sunflower seeds, and peanuts for mine. I also had to find Rice Syrup! I don’t shop specialty health food stores normally, but I wanted to get some rice syrup, since we’ve never used it before. It was fairly easy to find. The health food store kept it by the honey/agave/maple syrup products. There was one organic jar that was almost $8, but I chose the un-organic one for $4.  (I have a feeling this jar will last for many years.)
Here was our final recipe:
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup almonds
- 1/2 cup cashew pieces
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds (shelled)
- 1/2 cup peanuts
- 1 TBL Brown Rice Syrup
- 3 TBL Honey
Instructions
- Mix brown rice syrup and honey in a small bowl.
- In a large bowl, combined nuts and seeds.
- Pour honey syrup mixture over nuts.
- Scoop into a pan lined with parchment paper! (otherwise, tough to remove) (8X8 or 8 inch round pan).
- Bake at 350 for at least 20 minutes, or until just before nuts start to brown. Take out of oven and leave on the counter for several hours, preferable overnight to harden.
- By morning, your clusters will be well glued together!
Use any mixture of nuts and seeds you like. I did this a second time with only almonds. Â The key is to get 2 cups worth of nuts and seeds, to 4 TBL worth of sweeteners.
The verdict! Don’t make it if you can’t stop yourself from eating too many because it’s amazing!!! One little cluster however is perfect for kids lunch or snack!
A note about cooking with sugar. The longer you cook sugar (on the stove top or in the oven) the crunchier and harder your finished product will be. So according to how you like it – chewier results, less cooking time!
Natalie Monson
I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.
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Love those clusters from Costo, but great idea to make your own! Will be trying this out soon (and maybe throwing in some chocolate chips for good measure 🙂
Yum! My kiddos don’t really like nuts. I keep trying and this recipe will please me (and hopefully them) for sure!
Thank you thank you!! I am addicted to the ones from Costco, so I can’t wait to make these.
I just had a couple clusters this afternoon! Super good…and NO, I will not be making these. I have a hard time stopping with any homemade items 😉
What a fabulous way to get kids eating nuts and seeds. Thank you.
I have a personal family favourite recipe that I have published on my website. I wondered if you would like to use it as a guest article?
http://www.kids-health.co.uk/fancy-frittata/
Kind Regards
Becky
Oh, these look so good.
what could I substitute rice syrup for? I live overseas and don’t have any?
I think you could try all honey. As long as you can get the honey to harden up, and I think that has more to do with getting it to the right temperature, rather than the presence of the rice syrup. Let me know how it goes!
these look delicious. my kids love nuts so I’m sure these will be a hit! Thanks!
These look really good Amy. Thanks!
jamie- You and I are food sisters!
Those look wonderful! I don’t think I could stop eating them! They would make a nice snack for kids, tasty and healthy. Thanks for sharing, Amy!
Hi Amy!
I would suggest substituting another type of syrup for the rice syrup. A number of scientific studies have shown alarmingly high levels of arsenic in brown rice syrup.
I LOVE YOU!
You could also use barley malt syrup, maple syrup, molasses or corn syrup. They would all work – the thicker the better because brown rice syrup is very thick! 🙂
Arsenic in organic rice syrup???
Question for those who have made these; the pictures makes them look sticky. Following this recipe, do the bars become a crumble or sticky bar?
Rice naturally contains arsenic. Arsenic is actually an organic substance.
Christy- they are quite crispy- it all depends on how long you cook it for and what type of sugar you use. The longer you cook sugars, the crunchier your product is. The shorter the cooking time, the more sticky.. just like if you were making candy with a candy thermometer. Different sugars turn into that “hard crack stage” at different times.. 20 minutes was long enough to get ours to be crunchy, not sticky.
Organic brown rice syrup makes excellent granola bars too. Everything in moderation, as many many foods are now laced with arsenic.
Do you turn it out in spoon fulls or one large sheet of ingredients?
Just a bunch of clumpy spoonfuls Angela.
Can you tell me if you use salted oir non salted nuts in this recipe?
I used raw nuts, but you can also used roasted/salted ones Mary.
Hi there unsure if this is a silly question but are the nut used (pre baking) to be raw and not the pre roasted variety u get from the supermarket? Thanks!
Jamie- not silly. I’ve done it both ways. My husband actually prefers roasted nuts. I like them raw 🙂
Thanks for that.. If I cook them already roasted what would u recommend the cooking time be then? Is it less than raw as they are already roasted? Thanks
My oven hates me. I followed the directions and they came out burnt to a crisp. Don’t know if substituting maple syrup was to blame.
Hi Amy, these look great. Do you think it would work with less honey or is three tablespoons the minimum to get them to stick?
I do think it needs that much honey to stick, but a crumbly “snack mix” might be an alternative!
I love the mix of dried fruits and nuts…Would I be able to add dried cranberries in this recipe in place of one of the 1/2 cups of nuts, or would they become to dry from baking .
Hi Marissa! Good question, and I’m not totally sure about the answer because I haven’t tried it myself. But I think there’s good chance it would work just fine! It certainly sounds yummy!
Oh my….these are so good. I substituted maple syrup for the brown rice syrup and threw in a few pecans. I live at high altitude and baked for 20 minutes and they were perfect. They don’t appear to be too sticky, although I think they’ll all be gone for they harden up completely!
Hey!
I live in India and a friend’s parents brought the Costco ones back from their trip to the States and my husband CANNOT stop eating them! But he is torn up between having a few every day or having one a day and making the bag last longer… So I went web crawling to find the recipe and found this!! Have ordered all the ingredients and am hoping they turn out good!
One question though; the Costco ones have sea salt in them and he kinda likes that. At what stage would you recommend I add the salt? Would adding them in the mix make a difference or should I just stay on the safe side and toss the clusters in salt after they have hardened?
Also, I promise to make sure he doesn’t down like an entire batch of these in a day!
I’m glad you like them! You can add a pinch of salt to the clusters at any stage, it won’t affect how to turn out texture-wise.
Hello, I was wondering if I could use something else instead of honey. I’m on a low fodmap diet and honey isn’t an option for me. Thank you.
You could try a stevia syrup!