Ingredients
- 21 oz chocolate half dark, half milk. You can use cooking chocolate, chocolate melts, or chocolate chips.
- 3.5 oz white chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp thick caramel or dulce de leche
- 1/2 cup tiny marshmallows
- 1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries or other dried slightly tart and sweet fruit like cherries
- toppings of your choice shredded coconut, freeze-dried raspberries, caramel chocolate sprinkles, tiny marshmallows, pecan halves, dried cranberries
Instructions
- Prep the chocolate. If using chocolate bars, chop them up into smaller pieces first so that they can melt more easily.
- Melt the chocolate. Stovetop method: Add the chocolate to a thick-bottomed pot (to prevent it from burning). Put it over low heat and stir the chocolate until it has almost melted. Take the pot off the heat and continue stirring until all the chocolate has melted. Double-boiler method: If you don’t have a thick-bottomed pot, you can put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot with simmering water. Be careful that the bowl with chocolate doesn’t touch the water and that no steam goes into the bowl, as even a drop of water can make the chocolate seize. Stir until the chocolate has melted, then remove the bowl from the heat. Microwave method: Put the chocolate in a microwave-proof bowl and microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until the chocolate has melted.
- Add the mix-ins. Add the dulce de leche / caramel, tiny marshmallows, chopped pecans, and dried cranberries. Stir until combined. Then, add the white chocolate chips and mix them in.
- Scoop, add the toppings, and chill. Using a standard ice cream scoop, scoop the chocolate mix into cupcake/muffin liners. Top with your favorite toppings. I used combinations of freeze-dried raspberries, shredded coconut, tiny marshmallows, pecan halves, and caramel chocolate sprinkles. Loosely cover them with plastic wrap / cling film and put them in the refrigerator to chill (about 1 hour). If doing this for a party or get-together and the cupcake liners look messy from the chocolate, once the chocolate has set, you can transfer the clusters to new cupcake liners.