Cashew Coconut Clusters are better than Mounds Bars. Try some and see for yourself!
Our Cashew Nut Clusters really are better than Mounds Bars! You get the same holy trinity of dark chocolate/coconut/nuts but without the corn syrup and preservatives, and we up the game by using high quality dark chocolate, cashews instead of peanuts, and gently toasted unsweetened coconut. If you like Mounds, you’ll love these, guaranteed. That’s why they are good to have around in these uncertain times.
Pound Plus dark chocolate bar from Trader Joe’s.
We’ve modified our approach after making these many times. Everything we now use comes from Trader Joe’s where we buy a couple of those big (“Pound Plus”) bars of 72% dark chocolate with the red package, a couple of packages of raw cashew pieces, and a bag of unsweetened coconut slices. Even when the shelves were stripped of peanut butter and snacks, all these items were in stock at our local store.
We make a triple recipe which takes 9 oz of chocolate (each square of the Pound Plus bar is half and ounce so this will take roughly half the package), 2 c cashew pieces and a generous half-cup of the loosely packed coconut shreds. We preheat the oven to 375 degrees and make up a double boiler by floating a metal bowl in a pan of water on the stove to melt the chocolate. The cashews go on a silicone mat on a half-sheet pan and bake for about 7 minutes till they are fragrant and beginning to brown, then we toss the coconut on top and bake for 3-4 minutes until several pieces are starting to color.
The sheet pan comes out of the oven and cools while we wait for the chocolate to completely melt in the double boiler bowl. Then we remove the bowl from the pan and dump in the cashews and coconut using the silicone pad (which is now cool enough to handle) as a chute. Put the pad back on the pan and start making candies, one very generous tablespoon of the chocolate/nut/coconut mixture at a time. You’ll just about fill the half-sheet pan with about 18 candies, each a couple of generous mouthfuls.
Chill in the refrigerator until hard, then transfer to a container which you’ll also keep in the fridge because this chocolate is just a bit melty at room temperature. Then eat one for a low-sugar pick-me-up whenever you need a boost. They really are better than Mounds Bars and the kind of comfort classic we need nowadays. Enjoy.
