Imagine salty peanuts and bouncy homemade vanilla-maple marshmallows tossed with just enough chocolate to hold them together! These chocolate peanut clusters are hands down my favorite holiday treat. Karl’s too!
“Fluffernutter” chocolate peanut clusters are named after the childhood favorite peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich. I’ve actually never had one of those, but I do love the name! And peanuts and marshmallows make a pretty fantastic pair.
You can find my homemade maple marshmallow recipe here. Complete with full video tutorial, if you’ve never made them before! They are really fantastic for this, but you could also use store-bought mini marshmallows. Dandies brand is the best I’ve found.
Watch the video tutorial for how to make Chocolate Fluffernutters here!
What ingredients are in Chocolate Fluffernutter Peanut Clusters?
Since there are only a few ingredients in this recipe, you’ll want to make them count by using the highest quality you can get!
Chocolate: I really like a higher-end chocolate chip like Guittard or Ghiradelli for this. Get semi-sweet chocolate chips — here. And get milk chocolate chips –> here.
Peanuts: Must be roasted and salted. Do not use dry roasted peanuts that have savory spices like onion on them– check the ingredients! Don’t use peanuts with skins either. This is a dry-roasted and salted plain peanut –> here.
Marshmallows: Homemade maple ones are of course delicious, but you can use whatever type you like. If buying them, get mini ones so you don’t have to go to the trouble of cutting them. If using store bought, I like Dandies brand. Get them –> here.
Fleur de Sel Sea Salt: This is a lovely light and crisp sea salt, and my favorite for topping desserts like caramels, and these chocolates. This is a great brand here!
Parchment Cups: I love these little cups and think they make these clusters look so rustic and adorable! Get them –> here.
Ingredients
Method
- First, set up all the parchment cups on a sheet pan so they are ready to go. You won’t have time to do this after the chocolate gets melting!
- As you cut the marshmallows into small pieces, try to keep them separated and don’t allow them to all clump and stick together. Use arrowroot powder or powdered sugar to coat them, and then roll the marshmallow pieces around in a sieve to knock off any extra starch. This recipe uses around half of a batch of my marshmallow recipe. Alternatively, you can use store-bought mini-marshmallows.
- Melt all the chocolate chips together in a double boiler. I use a glass bowl fitted over a small saucepan. Heat the chocolate gently, stirring often, until the chips are almost fully melted. Take the bowl off the heat and allow the chips to finish melting with the residual heat.
- THIS IS IMPORTANT: First, stir in the peanuts. They will help to cool the chocolate. If you add the marshmallows right away they will melt and disintegrate into the chocolate. Once the peanuts are stirred in, fold in the marshmallows.
- Now work quickly! Use a spring-loaded scoop or a regular spoon to drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the parchment cups, in heaping tablespoonfuls. The chocolate will cool fast and set up quickly. Unlike other melted chocolate-type treats, you can’t re-melt this over the double boiler or the mallows will melt too.
- Sprinkle the tops of the clusters with the sea salt before the chocolate hardens.
- Let the fluffernutter chocolate peanut clusters cool and set on the counter for several hours, and then store in an air-tight container.
Notes
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If you don’t have a stand mixer, would you attempt making marshmallows with an electric hand mixer?
Yes, I do think that could work (though I haven’t tried it).
Fantastic! It’s hard to eat just one. Great proportion of chocolate with peanuts/marshmallows.
Glad you liked them! Thanks!