Chocolate Trail Mix Clusters

Roasted nuts and dried fruit covered in melted chocolate. An extra tasty way to enjoy trail mix. Use any combination of dried fruit or nuts.

I don’t know if I’ve told you this before, but I have a serious obsession with nuts. They are their own food group to me. I eat nuts every single day, and I can polish off a jar of peanut butter or almond butter in record time (extra crunchy, please). I think just about anything is better with nuts in it – baked goods, breakfast cereal, salad, bread, you name it. I love the crunch! I also annoyingly pick every single nut out of a carton of ice cream. If you’re looking for pistachio gelato without any pistachios or mocha almond fudge ice cream minus all the almonds, my freezer currently holds both – help yourself! Now that I’ve shared my little addiction with you, you won’t be surprised to hear that I ate almost every single one of these chocolate trail mix clusters. Between the dark chocolate (antioxidants!), the nuts (heart healthy!), and dried fruit (FRUIT!), these are practically as healthy as a glass of kale juice. OK, maybe not quite, but that’s what I tell myself to help me feel better about my inability to stop shoving these in my mouth. 

These tasty morsels are made by mixing dried fruit and nuts with melted chocolate, then dropping them by spoonfuls into clusters. Once they set, you have little bites of chocolate trail mix. For this batch I used almonds, cashews, pistachios, dried cherries, and dried cranberries. Feel free to use your favorite combo of nuts or dried fruit. This recipe is super simple and infinitely adaptable.

These clusters are a healthy way to satisfy your sweet tooth. Unless, of course, you eat all of them (ahem). Try to have more self control than me. Enjoy!

Print

Chocolate Trail Mix Clusters

Roasted nuts and dried fruit covered in melted chocolate. An extra tasty way to enjoy trail mix. Use any combination of dried fruit or nuts.

Course Candy, snacks

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Author Allison - Celebrating Sweets

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole almonds
• 1/2 cup cashew halves
• 1/2 cup shelled pistachios
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1 cup chocolate chips I used dark chocolate chips
• salt if needed (see note)

Instructions

1. If your nuts are already roasted (you can purchase them that way), skip to the next step. If your nuts are raw, toast them on a baking sheet in a 350°F oven for about 10 minutes, until fragrant.
2. In a large bowl, microwave the chocolate chips in 20-30 second increments, stirring well in between. Microwave until smooth and melted (this took me about 1 minute and 20 seconds).
3. Add the nuts and dried fruit to the melted chocolate and stir until all the nuts and fruit are coated with chocolate.
4. Using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon, drop mounds of the nut clusters onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Allow to sit at room temperature until set, at least an hour.

Recipe Notes

If your nuts are all unsalted, you may want to add a sprinkling of sea salt to the nuts when mixing them with the chocolate. Taste them while mixing, and stir in salt (if desired) before dropping the clusters onto the baking sheet.

Recipe adapted from Cuisine at Home magazine