From skwigg's journal:
I made the Coconut Cashew Clusters from Always Hungry. They were super easy! You need:
3-4 ounces of dark chocolate, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup chopped cashews or other nuts
2 tablespoons coconut flakes or shredded coconut
The book's recipe instructions say to preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine all the ingredients. Make 4-6 piles on the lined baking sheet. Bake about 5 minutes until the chocolate melts. Then pull the parchment paper off the sheet and let the clusters cool on the counter or in the refrigerator. Alternately, you can melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Stir everything together. Spoon it onto the parchment in several clusters and let it cool.
I'm like, "Ain't nobody got time for that." So, I melted the chocolate in the microwave, stirred everything in, and made my clusters. I'm sure there were no microwave directions because it's so easy to destroy chocolate in the microwave. You can turn it into gritty concrete in mere seconds. The secret is to chop the chocolate. Put it in a microwave safe bowl. Heat on high for 15 seconds. Stir like crazy. Heat on high for 15 seconds. Stir like crazy. As soon as it starts to melt, only heat it for 5-10 seconds at a time and keep stirring until it's smooth. It's better to err on the side of underheating it than to turn it into a lava rock.
I like this quick cluster recipe because you could stir anything into it. Any nut. Any dried fruit. Use any chocolate. And it's obviously not a crazy amount of sugar, but it's rich and tasty. Here are my creations.
