Add Chocolate for National Cranberry Day

Today is National Cranberry Day!

In honor of that, I want to share a few ideas of how you can add chocolate to cranberries for a delicious and semi-healthy treat.

1) Chocolate Covered Dried Cranberries

Cranberries with Melted Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Melt 4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate until the solid pieces will easily disappear with a few stirs of a spoon. Add in 6 ounces of dried cranberries. Eat while still slightly warm. If you want it to be more liquidity, add more chocolate or fewer cranberries. While not low calorie, the nutritional values of the cranberries and the dark chocolate make it an easy food treat and it can easily be shared by adding a second spoon to your bowl. Cranberries are sweet but also tart so I like the semi-sweet chocolate best but you decide what your taste buds desire.

2) Chocolate Sauce for Cranberry Baked Goods

You can use a pre-made or homemade chocolate sauce and use it either cool or warm. The firmness of your baked goods will help determine how thick you want that chocolate sauce to be. For crisp cookies, a fudge sauce would work but for a cranberry muffin you might want to just drizzle the chocolate over the muffin. Do you want to let the chocolate harden a bit or eat it right away? That's entirely your decision. This works well with dark, milk, or white chocolate, too.

3) Add Chocolate Chips to Any Cranberry Baked Good

If you are baking cranberry bread or muffins, adding chocolate chips, any type you like, is an easy way to incorporate chocolate into your cranberry day celebrations. Think of the amount you want but I'd recommend no more than 1 ounce of chocolate per serving of the baked good you are making. For lighter baked goods, try mini chips so they don't all sink to the bottom.