How to make Dark Chocolate sea salt Almonds
Whether you are wanting something sweet after dinner, or you are wanting something easy but homemade for Valentine's Day, these Dark Chocolate Almonds are the answer. They are super easy and require only a few ingredients.
Ingredients in Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Almonds
To make these little clusters, you will only need:
High quality dark chocolate - I prefer to look for soy free and 70% cocoa solids
Whole Almonds - You can use unroasted (see first step), regular roasted, roasted and salted, marcona or even smoked
Sea Salt - You can use any kind, but flaky salt like Maldon is really good.
Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Almonds with Pink Peppercorns?
Totally optional, but they add an exotic element and pretty pink pop especially if you’re making for Valentine’s Day, Pink peppercorns are not actually peppercorns at all. They just resemble peppercorns in size. They are actually a tiny berry from a Brazilian pepper tree that are dried after harvesting. They have a much lighter pepper-hinted spice flavor. Besides being delicious as a pretty garnish on these Dark Chocolate Almonds, they are also great in salad dressings and in sauces for fish or chicken.
How to Make Dark Chocolate Almonds
There are only a few steps - see photos below.
Roast almonds in oven (if smoked or already roasted, skip this step)
Melt chocolate in double boiler.
Stir almonds into chocolate.
Spoon almonds into clusters on parchment paper.
Sprinkle with sea salt and pink peppercorns.
Variations on Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Almonds
To make this recipe you own, use:
Any nut in place of almonds - Pecans, macadamia nuts or whole peeled hazelnuts would be amazing!
Use dried fruits only - apricots, dried cherries or dried fruit-juice sweetened cranberries would all be delicious
A mixture of chopped dried fruit and nuts
Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Almonds
Ingredients
- 4 oz dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate bar (at least 70% cacao solids)
- 1 1/2 cups roasted almonds
- Sea Salt (or Smoked Sea Salt if you happen to have it)
- Pink Peppercorns, optional
Instructions
- Roast the almonds in a 350 degree oven until you can just start to smell their nuttiness. I used a toaster oven to avoid heating up the whole oven for this quick technique.
- Melt dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate bar. You can use the microwave, but the more I learn about what this does to our food, the less I'm using it. This is my makeshift double boiler. Sorry about the spotty bowl, it's well-loved and scratched up. (Not dirty, LOL!)
- Once the chocolate looks like this, stir the almonds into the chocolate.
- Drop by spoons full onto parchment paper.
- Sprinkle with sea salt. I added pink peppercorns because I had them on hand. (The salt I used is pyramid sea salt flakes from Trader Joe's.) Smoked sea salt would be interesting, too.
- Of course, you could leave out the peppercorns and just use regular sea salt, but with the big Valentine's Day coming up, I loved the little pink peppercorns on top.
Notes
If your nuts are roasted or smoked, skip step one.