Cherry Almond Chocolate Clusters — Ellie Krieger – Chasing MY Life WHEREVER it Leads ME

I had to share this with you. It is the easiest recipe, has loads of variations, and is a delicious candy. If you make a variation, please let me know at Comfy Cook – http://comfycook.wordpress.com. My link and pics are not working. This happened, not too long ago, and it seemed to be a Word Press issue. I will just have to wait and see.

Cherry Almond Chocolate Clusters – adapted from Ellie Krieger

Ingredients:

1 cup(s) nuts, almonds, toasted in a dry skillet over a medium-high flame until fragrant, stirring frequently, 3 to 5 minutes and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup(s) cherries, dried tart, coarsely chopped
6 ounce(s) dark chocolate, 72% cacao, finely chopped

* I did not coarsely chop any of the above. I did not think, that the dried cherries whole, were a problem. The nuts already were cut into slivers and only had to be roasted. I broke the chocolate into pieces, rather than anything smaller.

Method:

In a medium bowl, toss together the almonds and cherries. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.
Melt half the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over 1 inch of barely simmering water, over the lowest possible heat, stirring frequently. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the rest of the chocolate. Remove the top pan with the chocolate in it, gently wipe the bottom, and set it aside for a moment.

Replace the simmering water in the bottom pan with warm tap water. Put the pan of melted chocolate on top of the warm water. This will keep the chocolate at the right temperature while you make the clusters.
Stir the fruit/nut mixture into the chocolate.
Spoon out heaping tablespoon-sized clusters of the chocolate mixture onto the baking sheet about 1 inch apart.
Put them in the refrigerator to set for 15 minutes.
Store and serve at room temperature.

As far as I am concerned, you can mix and match, with this recipe. I would like dried apricots with pecans or dried blueberries with walnuts. What about dried apples and any of the nuts. Or, we could mix the fruit in one recipe. Some dried mango with blueberries and apples. It is all up to taste.