guiltLESS chocolate fix

after the urging of my cousin and friend april, i'll tell you about these little clusters of chocolaty goodness. i wasn't going to because they only include 3 ingredients, but now that i think about it are a much healthier sweet snack for you chocolate lovers out there and i shouldn't withhold. they are super easy, might take 10 minutes of work before you pop them in the fridge and the combinations really are endless. here's what i used:

2 bars of 55% cacao venezuelan dark chocolate (3.52 oz each)
about 1/2 cup of dried cranberries
about 1 cup of chopped toasted walnuts

while you are melting your chocolate in a double boiler (use low heat and stir it often), toast your walnuts in a small skillet until you start to smell their nuttiness.

*for those of you who might not know what a double boiler is - it's just a pot of simmering water with a bowl sitting on top of it. the steam from the simmering water heats the bowl (i used a glass one). just make sure your bowl isn't sitting in your water. this is just a more gentle way of melting chocolate than on your stovetop.*

once your chocolate is melted stir in your nuts and fruit until well combined and scoop out onto wax paper (i used my pampered chef medium scoop and it worked great). i put one of those flexible, thin plastic cutting board under my wax paper so that it would be easier to transport to my refrigerator. leave them in there for about 10-15 minutes to harden.

i got this recipe from ellie krieger and she recommended 60-70% dark chocolate, but the best aldi had was 55% (for $1.49 per bar!) and it worked great. she used almonds and cherries in her clusters but i had cranberries and walnuts on hand. you could really use any dried fruit you like or nut for that matter. of course almonds and walnuts are rich in omega 3's but you could use peanuts or cashews or pecans.

this recipe makes about 12 clusters so i enjoyed 1 and froze the rest for later. these are delicious little chunks of rich, chocolate goodness. and will certainly provide a chocolate fix; even for you feening choc-a-holics out there!