Valentine's Day Archives - The Midnight Baker

Crock Pot Cherry Almond Clusters

Judith Hannemann — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 00:00:55 +0000

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.

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Crock Pot Cherry Almond Clusters

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!

Prep Time5

Cook Time1 30

Total Time1 35

Course: candy, desserts, Slow Cooker

Cuisine: American

Keyword: almond clusters, cherries, slow cooker baking

Servings: 45

Calories: 122kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

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

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6 Easy Date Night Dinners for Valentine’s Day

Judith Hannemann — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

More “date night” with your love and less cooking! You’ll “heart” these recipes so put one of these easy dinners on the menu for Valentine’s Day.

Just click on the desired photo to bring you to the recipe.

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Valentine’s Day Cakelettes

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 05:00:00 +0000

Valentine’s Day Cakelettes

Just in time for Valentine’s Day.

The special thing about these heart-shaped cakelettes is not the cake–that’s just a boxed Devil’s Food mix. What’s special about these is the glaze; an absolutely orgasmic chocolate raspberry ganache. This adds a hint of tartness to the sweet making these the perfect tea-time snack.

The final touch is a drizzle of white chocolate…but be warned. White chocolate melted is DIFFICULT to work with. If you buy Lindt or Tobler, these contain cocoa butter and will melt nicely. I don’t usually have those, but I do have white chocolate chips, which don’t contain cocoa butter. I add about 1 tsp of Crisco to about a cup of white chips and melt in 30-second stages in the microwave, stirring after each 30 seconds. This won’t drizzle from a spoon so I use a sandwich bag with a teenie portion of the corner cut off. You must keep an eye though–it will clog because the white chocolate will lump up. Just clear the lump by pinching the corner of the bag to release the solidified lump and you can start in again. Of course, you CAN leave out this step; it’d be much easier. It’s really only for decoration. If you’re brave, then go ahead! I did read somewhere that if you have a bit of drizzing to do, then use a squeeze bottle. What was shown looked like an old-time plastic ketchup bottle. That probably would work well and a set of mustard & ketchup bottles are cheap enough. Every dollar store I’ve ever been in has had them.

Valentine’s Day Cakelettes

1 box Devils Food cake mix
(all ingredients called for on the box)
Chocolate Raspberry Ganache:
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels
2 tbs unsalted butter
1/4 cup seedless raspberry preserves
White Chocolate Drizzle:
1 cup white chocolate morsels
1 tsp vegetable shortening
(and you may need more shortening, but add it in 1/4 tsp amts)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or 325 degrees if using a dark or coated pan).

Line the bottom of a 15 x 10 x 1-inch jelly roll pan with baker’s parchment. Mix cake according to box directions. Spread in prepared pan.

Bake cake 20-25 minutes, turning pan halfway through the baking time. Cake is done when center springs back or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool on rack 10 minutes. Release cake on rack and carefully remove parchment. DO NOT INVERT. The bottom will be the top! Cool completely.

When cool, use heart-shaped cookie cutter (about 2-inches at widest part) and cut out heart-shaped portions of cake. Place portions on a rack set in a large cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.

Prepare ganache by heating cream to a simmer. Remove from heat and add remaining ganache ingredients. Let sit for 2 minutes. With wire whisk, beat ganache until smooth.

Using a small ladle or very large spoon, coat each cakelette with ganache. Ganache that has dripped into the pan beneath may be scraped up and reheated and used for additional glazing. Let ganache set. This will take about 4 hrs.

Melt white chocolate and shortening. Stir until completely smooth. Using a plastic sandwich bag or the squeeze bottle mentioned above, pipe thin lines of white chocolate diagonally across hearts. Let set.

Makes about 36

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