4 Ingredients Chocolate Cherry Almond Clusters and Win a Vitamix!

Monica Salafia, RDN
May 20, 2017
4 min read

Put down your phone. Go to your pantry because I bet you have most of the ingredients and you must make these now. Seriously, these 4 Ingredient Chocolate Cherry Almond Clusters are the easiest sweet treat to make. It took me 12 minutes to make these. No, really, I made a video and it was only 12 minutes long from start to finish.

If you make these 4 Ingredient Chocolate Cherry Almond Clusters from a recipe in Food & Nutrition Magazine you can enter to win a Vitamix! How awesome is that!? Would you melt some chocolate and stir in some cherries and almond, take a pic with #FNTestKitchen if you had a chance to win a $519 Vitamix?

I would and I did!

I subscribe to Food & Nutrition Magazine and I never do the #FNTestKitchen contest and clearly I am missing out! So I knew when I got my May/June 2017 Issue I was going to do the Test Kitchen Contest no matter what. This issue's contest was sponsored by the California Almond Board! So thanks Cali Almond Board! (For the record no one sponsored this post it is my own!!)

I couldn't think of an easier recipe that is more delicious and simple to make. Even kiddos can help!

These 4 Ingredient Chocolate Cherry Almond Clusters can be as gourmet or as simple as you want. I went with my own personal twist when I made these. The changes I made:

I used really dark chocolate. No not unsweetened chocolate, who the f would do such a thing?! No, I chose an 88% dark chocolate bar that I found at Sprout's Farmer's Market. Why this chocolate? Well....

It was cheaper total than an entire bag (I paid 2.50 for the 1 bar instead of $5 for a bag). I realize the bag is cheaper per ounce but I don't need a bag of chocolate chips in my cabinet. I needed a 1/2 cup total.
It was really dark...yummmm!
It saves the animals

I also used dried cherries with a mix of dried cranberries because the original recipe calls for fresh cherries, washed, pitted. I so did NOT want to pit cherries that afternoon (haha!) so I was like "dried cherries it is"! Well, that was until I approached the bins and saw dried cherries were $12.99 a pound compared to the $1.99 a pound dried cranberries...

One more change to the recipe was I went trendy and used Pink Himalyan sea salt. This was not because pink Himalayan sea salt is healthier (it's not, it's still salt). I used it because it was prettier than regular iodized salt. I thought the big chunks of pink sodium chloride would photograph really well.

Maybe you are wondering, Why Sprout's Farmer's Market? I went there because they have a wonderful bulk section for all different types of grains, dried fruits, nuts, seeds, trail mixes, candies. It is the same thing as you would find at Whole Food's but more affordable for the most part.

In fact, when I got there I also needed oatmeal and I bought Old Fashioned Rolled Oats for $0.69 a pound! Needless to say I got a huge bag of it because you know how much I freaking love oatmeal.

Anyways! Back to the 4 Ingredient Chocolate Cherry Almond Clusters. You probably want the recipe now! Well you can click the link here for the original recipe in the Food & Nutrition Magazine or you can scoot down below and use my version.

Like I said I made a few tweaks to the recipe just to tailor to my preferences for dark chocolate and less work!

So here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup almonds, roughly chopped

1/4 cup dried cherries and dried cranberries mix

1/2 cup 88% dark chocolate

1/2 tsp pink Himalayan sea salt.

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine chopped almonds and dried cherry/cranberry mixture.

Place the chocolate chips in a separate microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Stir with a rubber spatula and repeat 2 to 3 more times until the chips are thoroughly melted.

Pour the melted chocolate into the cherry/cranberry and almond mixture and gently stir until the nuts and fruit are coated.

Scoop as tablespoons and place on a wax or parchment paper lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Total time (for me ) 12 minutes, 1 hour chill

Serving size: whatever you want it to be but I felt satisfied at 2

Yields: 8 (the original recipe said 5 or 6 but I got 8 and didn't use "heaping" tablespoons)

Enter to Win a Vitamix!

Oh! And if you want a chance to win a Vitamix Ascent Series A2500 Vitamix then take a photo of your beautiful 4 Ingredient Chocolate Cherry Almond Clusters, post it to Instagram with the hashtag #FNTestKitchen. You have until June 9th to do this!