It is early October, but before you know it, it’s time to think about holiday gifts. This year I am going to share with you, easy to make food gifts, that don’t require a lot of time. Best of all they are cute, delicious and a welcome gifts. The first: Dark Chocolate Nut Cups.
This quick and easy recipe is very close to nut clusters, but it has a different ratio. It is chocolate with nuts rather than nuts with chocolate. Because of the emphasis on chocolate, it is better to pour this into small cups. If you were to pour this on a baking sheet, you would end up with chocolate bark, as the chocolate will spread out.
Three steps to make Dark Chocolate Nut Cups
- Melt dark chocolate or a combination of dark and milk chocolate
- Mix roughly chopped nuts with the chocolate. Any combination of nuts would work in principle. I have peanuts and macadamia nuts. Instead of just nuts, you could try nuts and dried fruits. Nuts like almonds, pecans, peanuts, macadamia nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews etc. Examples of dried fruits are cranberries, dates, apricots, cherries, raisins etc. You could also think about adding popcorn or coconut.
- Pour the mix into mini paper cups (1 5/8 inch). Fill them with half a tablespoon of the chocolate mix. This is about one large bite or two smaller bites and sprinkle with some coarse sea salt flakes (if you like). Then allow them to cool. You will have about 20 paper cups.
Store the Dark Chocolate Nut Cups in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They will be good for 1-2 months.
If you indeed like to give these Dark Chocolate Nut Cups a a gift, you can keep them in the paper cups or unwrap them. Pack them in a nice tin. Alternatively, use a cellophane bag with a colored ribbon and your holiday gift is ready. You can buy cellophane bags at stores like Michaels or Hobby Lobby, as well as ribbons.
Dark Chocolate Nut Cups
Ingredients
- 12 ounces dark chocolate chopped
- 1 cup peanuts coarsely chopped
- 1 cup macadamia nuts coarsely chopped
- sea salt flakes (optional)
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; this is solely to protect your baking sheet in case you drip chocolate. Place mini baking cups on the parchment paper. (Note 1)
- In a bowl, mix together the coarsely chopped peanuts and macadamia nuts and set aside.
- Melt the chocolate. You can do this au-bain-marie (place a heatproof bowl over hot water) or in a microwave. Stir constantly until melted and smooth. (Note 2)
- Stir the nuts into the chocolate and mix thoroughly.
- Scoop half tablespoons into mini paper cups. You can decide how full you want them to be. I used mini baking cups (1 5/8 inch) and filled them just over half and was able to make about 20. (Note 3)
- Sprinkle with sea salt flakes if you like.
Notes
- The only reason to cover the baking sheet with parchment paper is to avoid that you have to clean it, if you by mistake pour some chocolate outside the paper cups, onto the baking sheet.
- You can make these chocolate nuts cups from dark chocolate or from a mixture of dark and milk or just milk. Just depends on your preference.
- Half tablespoons of chocolate in mini cups (1 5/8 inch) is about one large bite or two smaller bites.
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