Chocolate nut clusters

Do you want a dozen pieces of homemade candy?  Of course you do.  It could not be easier.

1. Put 6 ounces of broken-up chocolate (semisweet is OK, but darker is better) in a microwave-safe bowl.  This is the equivalent of 1.5 Ghirardelli baking bars or half a sack of chocolate chips.

2. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, 30 more seconds, stir, 30 final seconds, stir.  Remove from microwave.

3. Between microwave bursts, rough chop 1 cup of roasted, salted almonds and 1/2 cup dried cherries (or other dried fruit that you like).

4. Mix the nuts and fruit into the melted chocolate.

5. Drop mixture into 12 free-form clusters on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet.

6. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

7. Store in an airtight container on the counter and CONSUME.

See?  It's barely even a recipe.  Idea by Ellie Krieger, who says it's good for you.  Each piece provides a guilt-free 1/2 ounce of chocolate, almonds which boast such exciting health benefits as constipation relief, and FRUIT, of which you must eat 25 servings per day or something like that.

Comments

[Melinda]

Here's a marketing tagline in case you need it: Li'l Chocolate Poopies help you push out the poop!

[Caroline]

Ellie Krieger's ideas of healthiness are confusing to me. Some of her recipes seem bizarre in their level of substitutions (OMG, so much yogurt instead of mayonnaise), and yet this seems like a total scam -- a full cup of almonds?

So by some basic nutritional math, each of these 12 clusters has over 150 calories and 10 grams of fat. That's more than a tenth of the calories I eat in a day, and almost a THIRD of the fat.

[Kelly]

Good points from the two of you! Caroline, I'll look up the nutritional info and Ellie's rationale behind these. Frankly, I make them because they taste good and are incredibly fast and easy. But I hear what you're saying. :)

[Caroline]

Right! They are delicious I bet, and like the candy our mothers or grandmothers might make for Christmas or bake sales. Mostly that was an Ellie Krieger comment. Her "culinary point of view" is cloudy to me.

Also, have you ever tried the chocolate they sell in the microwaveable containers? It's made to be perfect for doing chocolate-covered strawberries and other stuff like that, melts perfectly smooth, is generally wonderful.

[Kelly]

Oh, I have problems with Ellie, too. Most of them are pretty shallow, but they're still problems!

Not sure what you're talking about re: microwaveable containers. Is that some kinda newfangled Chicago idea?

[Caroline]

They kind of look like if you buy a microwaveable soup. That kind of thing with the vented plastic top.

Baker's Dipping Chocolate -- my mom finds it in Oregon so I reckon it's in a store near you too.