Chocolate Clusters – Another Grain, Dairy and Refined Sugar Free Snack

If you bumped into me last year at a party you would probably have knocked into me at the snack table.  I would probably have some kind of starch laden goodness already swirling around in my mouth and my hands would already be reaching out to add a few more starchy cheesy goodness to my plate.

When you’d finally get me away from the table we’d sit and chat about our favourite food and I would not even mention chocolate.  I would say pasta, burgers and potatoes in any way, shape or form.  But chocolate?  Not even a feature.

So it blows my mind that now that I have cut out all grains (i.e. STARCH) from my diet it is totally strange that all I have been craving is chocolate.  Weird right?

Anyway, we’ve checked out the chocolate ice cream and the chocolate honey, nut bars but now I want to focus on something that doesn’t need much setting/cooking time – quite the opposite actually.  Chuck them in the fridge for 30 minutes and you should be good to go.

I’ve made these about 4 times now and each time I have tried something new.  Why?  Not because I am an good baker or anything, the reason is more along the lines of my cupboard not having the right ingredients at all times.  But let me give you a run down of the basics that you will need:

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup (Unsweetend) Cocoa
• 1/2 Cup Raisins (soaked in warm water for 30 minutes before you begin)
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence
• 1/4 Cup Coconut
• 1 Cup Nuts (I used Cashews – roughly chopped – and Diced Almonds)
• 3 Level Tablespoons Of Coconut Oil
• Pinch of Salt

Steps

1. Soak raisins in water for 30 minutes before starting
2. Drain raisins and then add the vanilla essence and coconut oil before blending with your favourite blending device – for me the stick blender works perfectly.
3. Put the nuts, cocoa, coconut and salt in a bowl and mix.
4. Add the finely blended raisin mix to the bowl and stir.  This is totally subject to how you like your food, if it’s not sweet enough add some honey, if you prefer it with a slightly more chocolate taste add more cocoa.  I prefer ours to be more chocolate and less sweet.
5. Form into balls, put onto wax paper and pop into the fridge to set before eating.

That’s the basics, but here is how I have changed it up over the various times:

• I substituted some of the raisins for cranberries.
• I added a lot more coconut and made them very “dry”
• I added the minimum nuts and coconut and made them rather liquid – these turned out to be my favourite, they tasted the most like chocolate.

If you make it, let me know how it goes 🙂