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You’ll think these cherry almond nut clusters come from a fancy confectionary shop, but surprise! They are super easy and made in your slow cooker!
Valentine’s Day will be here sooner than you think! Whip up a batch of these fruity and nutty chocolate clusters for your honey and watch them disappear! The original recipe comes from BHG. I omitted one ingredient and upped the fruit.
They’ll think you slaved away all day to make them, but the secret is, they are easy and your crock pot does all the work.
All you have to do is layer all the ingredients, making sure that the nuts are at the bottom of the crock and pretty much cover the entire bottom. The reason behind that is it prevents the chocolate from scorching as it forms a nice “bed” for the chocolate and nut layers to rest upon.
Your crock pot is an excellent appliance to temper chocolate because of it’s low and slow heat. You never use the high setting when working with chocolate–so please keep that in mind. There really is no way here you can speed up the process.
It cooks pretty quickly as it is–requiring only 1-1.5 hours. And to prevent any condensation from falling in the chocolate because chocolate will seize if ANY moisture is added, I used a couple of layers of paper towels right under the lid. I just laid them across the top of the crock and placed the lid on top of them. The lid will secure the paper towels so there’s no worries of it falling into the chocolate. I reckoned the cooking time was so short the lid wouldn’t build any condensation, but having made candy for many years, I wasn’t going to take the chance so just play it safe and use the paper towels.
This is also great candy for Washington’s birthday because you have the cherry element added.
These candies are a bit different from the usual crock pot peanut clusters because they are more fancy–but still easy!
You can also use almond bark in place of the candy melts (the disks) that I used because it amounts to the same thing. The brand I used was Wilton, but there are other manufacturers.
Crock Pot Cherry Almond Clusters
Ingredients
- 3 cups whole almonds
- 1 12 oz pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 4 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate broken up
- 8 oz dried cherries cut up if large
- 10 oz white candy coating -OR- almond bark
Instructions
- Place almonds in the bottom of a 3.5-4 quart slow cooker.
- If using almond bark, cut it up in small chunks about 1-inch.
- Layer the chocolate chips, baking chocolate, cherries and candy coating, having the candy coating on top.
- Place a layer of paper towels on top of the crock and secure them with the lid.
- Cook on low ONLY for 1-1.5 hours. Candy will still appear whole, but if you stir it like in the photo in the post, and everything blends well, it's ready.
- Drop chocolate mixture into paper bonbon cups (about 1.5-inches diameter at bottom). I got 45 bonbon cups out of this recipe.
Nutrition
Helen McLashen says
How much is 10 ounces if I would measure in cups
Judith Hanneman says
Probably about a cup–fortunately, it doesn’t have to be exact. The almond bark/confectioner’s coating only gives the candy a “sheen.”