Spiced Cocoa and Caramel Snack Mix
Inspired by Mexican Hot Chocolate. It's rich, spiced, sweet, and a little wild!
Ingredients
Snack Mix:
- 1 1/3 cups cashews dry-roasted salted
- 1 1/3 cups pecans dry-roasted
- 3 cups pretzel sticks broken in half
- 2 cups plantain chips broken up
- 1 cup pumpkin seeds roasted, shelled
Spiced Sugar Glaze:
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons corn syrup
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Heat over to 250F.
Snack Mix:
- In a large bowl, combine the nuts, pretzel sticks and plantain chips and mix up. Set aside.
Prepare the Spiced Sugar Glaze:
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, corn syrup, coconut oil, cinnamon, cocoa powder, kosher salt, and chili powder over medium heat. Stir until the mixture is liquid and begins to bubble.
- Remove from heat and add baking powder. Stir vigorously. It will bubble furiously, then immediately pour over snack mix.
- With two large spoons or spatulas, immediately begin to mix in glaze. Turn over and over until every bit of the snack mix is well coated with the glaze. 2-3 minutes of mixing should do it. It will seem very wet. Don't worry.
- On a large 10x15-inch sheet pan, pour mixture onto it and spread evenly across sheet, separating pieces as best you can.
- Place baking sheet in oven for an hour, removing every 15 minutes to break up and mix up mixture and place back in oven.
- At the end of the hour, again break up mixture with two spoons. Let cool completely and store in an airtight container. It won’t last long!