Coconut Chocolate Cluster

Thursday, 22 September 2011

This is a guest post from ChowTimes.

Minoo prepared a no bake snacks dessert for the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen to end the meal.

We enjoyed this Coconut Chocolate Cluster as it's chewy with a crunch and not too sweet. I brought a couple home for Arkensen to try and he kept asking me to make it.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon finely shredded unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted and cooled
1/2 cup toasted almonds, cooled and chopped
7 to 8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon finely ground espresso beans (optional)
a big grain finishing salt – we omited this

Source: this recipe is adapted from 101 cookbooks

Makes 36 clusters.

Instructions

Lightly toast shredded coconut and almonds, let cooled.

Roughly chopped the almonds.

Combine the coconut and almonds in a large bowl.

Place the chocolate in a double boiler (or a bowl placed over a bit of simmering water) to melt the chocolate.

Mix in the ground espresso.

Pour the chocolate over the coconut mixture or vice versa.

Stir the mixture to combine. Let cool a few minutes.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Drop by tablespoon onto baking sheet.

Finish with a few grains of salt on top of each.

The mixture will be a bit crumbly, but will set as the chocolate cools. If your kitchen is on the cool side, the cluster will set up over the course of an hour or so.

If you want to speed up the process a bit, pop them in the refrigerator.

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