chocolate-cherry clusters

Three ingredients, fifteen minutes prep time, an amazingly great snack: the Chocolate-Cherry Cluster.

From the January/February 2011 issue of Everyday Food Magazine.

Melt 10 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, mix in 3 cups of cornflakes that you’ve crushed slightly and half a cup of dried cherries until everything is covered in melted chocolate.  Drop by heaping tablespoons (I used a small ice cream scoop) onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Let cool until chocolate has hardened. Makes 18 clusters that won’t last long, trust me on this. These would make a delicious Valentine’s treat for that someone special. Also, if you love the combination of chocolate and cherries, you’ll flip for these. So, what’s your favorite Valentine’s sweet treat?

mini mocha cheesecakes – everyday food challenge

Welcome to “Have a Sweet Thursday”. Today we feature a not-so-bad-for-your-waistline Mini Mocha Cheesecake from the current edition of Everyday Food Magazine. Just 174 calories and 2 grams of fat per mini cheesecake. How great is that? What’s their secret to a slimmed down cheesecake? Two things, a smaller portion, of course. And the cream cheese has been substituted with nonfat cottage cheese. Now I can hear some of you shrieking in horror. Relax, you don’t even really know that it’s there once you blitz all the ingredients in the food processor until they’re smooth as chocolate milk. A simple crust of a chocolate wafer cookie makes this recipe even easier.

Once you take them out of their cupcake wrapper and invert them on a plate, they’re not the most beautiful of desserts. I decided to top mine with a little store-bought sugar-free caramel sauce and just a sprinkling of sea salt.

If you’re looking for a little sweetness with a hint of mocha, I think you’ll really enjoy these. So go out and get your issue of Everyday Food magazine. The current issue features lots more light recipes just in time for all of those new year’s resolutions.