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Chocolate Coated Nuts
Melt 3 squares bitter or sweet chocolate in a double boiler. Dip nuts in chocolate and place in clusters on waxed paper to cool. If more than 3 nuts are desired for 1 piece, other nuts may be dipped and placed on top of cluster.
Three lines of instruction that depend almost entirely on how you handle the chocolate. Get the melting right and the rest is assembly.
- What a "square" isBaking chocolate was sold in scored 1-ounce squares, so 3 squares is 3 oz, roughly half a cup of chips or chopped chocolate. That is enough to coat about a cup of nuts, though the recipe states no yield.
- Bitter or sweet"Bitter" here means unsweetened baking chocolate, which is harsh on its own. Semisweet or a dark bar is the nearer modern stand-in for "sweet" and the safer choice for eating out of hand.
- Temper, or accept the bloomChocolate simply melted and cooled tends to set soft and streaky and can bloom grey after a few days. With a sweetened bar, melt two-thirds to about 115F, take it off the heat and stir in the remaining third until it drops to 88-90F, and the clusters will set firm with a snap; unsweetened chocolate will not hold a temper the same way.
- Keep water outThe double boiler should barely steam, not boil, and the bowl must sit above the water rather than in it. A few drops of condensation will seize the chocolate into a grainy paste that cannot be recovered for dipping.
- Toast the nutsRaw nuts under chocolate taste flat. Ten minutes at 350F, then cooled completely to room temperature before dipping, since warm nuts will throw the chocolate out of temper.
- Setting surfaceParchment releases more cleanly than waxed paper and does not soften. Let the clusters set at cool room temperature; the refrigerator chills them too fast and draws condensation onto the surface.
- Building up clustersThe second layer must go on while the first is still wet, or it will not bond. Work in small batches rather than dipping everything at once.
Chocolate-dipped nut clusters belong to the era when home candy-making was a normal domestic activity and boxed confections were a luxury purchase. Unsweetened and sweet chocolate came in wrapped, scored cakes intended for baking, and a home cook improvising sweets would reach for those rather than for couverture, which was a confectioner's material. The recipe assumes the reader owns a double boiler, standard equipment in a period kitchen for custards, sauces and anything that would scorch over direct heat. Ending a holiday meal with nuts and small candies set out in dishes is a long-standing custom that predates chocolate coating by centuries.