Super Simple Recipe for National Chocolate Covered Nut Day

Tomorrow, February 25, 2018, is National Chocolate Covered Nut Day so to help you prepare here is a super simple recipe I created and tested out months ago. I did this during the heat and humidity of summer so it should be very easy for you to make now in the late winter or perhaps the late summer if you are reading in the Southern Hemisphere. These take less than five minutes to mix together, an hour or so to cool, then you press them out and you have delicious mostly nutritious treats. It takes only three ingredients in total and one of these you might be able to get by without using at all if you don't have it on hand or have an allergy issue. Note: These are NOT low calorie treats. The smaller ones I made were 160 calories while the larger ones were 320! That makes these delicious but not something you should enjoy every day. I used Fisher Naturals Hazelnuts that I had be sent for free through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for a review on their website; this feature article is an extra for them. No other form of compensation was received.

Smaller Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Clusters

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Clusters
By TammyJo Eckhart, PhD

Ingredients:

22 ounces of chopped hazelnuts

22 ounces of dark chocolate

1 tsp coconut oil (optional depending on the type of chocolate you use and the weather)

Directions:

1. Break up the dark chocolate and place the pieces into a large microsafe bowl.

2. Microwave chocolate for 1 minute and stir. Then microwave for another minute and stir again. Then microwave at 30 second intervals until the chocolate is smooth when stirred. Add in coconut oil and microwave for 15 seconds and stir until it is all smooth.

3. Stir in the hazelnuts until they are entirely coated with the melted chocolate.

Dark Chocolate Coated Hazelnuts

4. Place silicone muffin cups or muffin pans onto a sturdy baking sheet. This will make it easier to move the treats.

5. Spoon into silicone muffins cups. I used both large and medium sized cups and ended up with 36 treats, 24 medium and 12 large.

Silicone Muffin Pan with Clusters

6. Place the filled silicone muffin cups into the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

7. Take the cold treats out of the refrigerator. Apply gentle pressure onto the backs of the silicone muffin cups and the treats should pop out easily. Store in an airtight container until you want to serve them.

Enjoy!