It’s Valentine’s week and that means lots of chocolate. This makes Sean very happy, my chocolate monster! We started out our chocolate adventures on the healthy side with these dark chocolate covered almonds.

Almonds are a healthy fat, dark chocolate is good for your heart. How could you possibly go wrong?! All right, portion control may be a problem for some of you so be very careful. Or just indulge, life is too short to deny yourself something you love. I will be portioning these out to Sean though or he would eat them all!

Chocolate and orange is one of my favorite combinations so I went with it. This recipe accomplishes that simply by adding orange zest to the melted chocolate. It really doesn’t get much easier than that.

Once the chocolate almonds are cooled and set you have a couple choices. You can break them up individually or break them up in small to large clumps. If you’re feeling lazy, large clumps is the way to go!

After the almonds take a bath in the orange chocolate they get a dusting of cocoa powder. You don’t necessarily have to do this step, but I prefer the cocoa coating, it helps slow down the chocolate from melting in your hands!

Like I said before, this is a super easy recipe but packed with indulgent yet healthy ingredients. It’s the perfect special snack. Truth be told I even shared with Sean, normally I would hoard chocolate covered almonds!

Dark Chocolate Orange Almonds
5 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
Zest of one orange
10 oz. roasted and salted almonds
2 Tbs. cocoa powder

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, stir in the orange zest. Add the almonds to the melted chocolate and stir to coat everything evenly. Spread coated almonds on a parchment paper lined sheet pan in a single layer and place in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to set. Break apart in small clumps and place in a bowl with the cocoa powder, shaking well to coat thoroughly. Pour the coated clusters into a fine sieve and shake off all excess cocoa powder. Store in an airtight container.

Yields: 10 servings