Chocolate-Covered Almonds

You know when you leave a restaurant hungry?  Yea, it doesn't happen to me very often, yet here I am, right after lunch, eating these almonds, which unfortunately, as good as they are, aren't very filling.  What I need is a sandwich, but I can't quite justify that right after spending £25 on lunch.  See, the problem is it wasn't one of those posh restaurants with tiny beautiful plates of exquisite food.  I usually am mentally and physically prepared for those meals where I know I will be fed very little.  But I went to a Vietnamese place.  I expected big sharing plates of generous curries and salads -- I wasn't mentally prepared for stingy baby-sized curries.  I just wasn't prepared and I hate being disappointed. All was delicious and fresh and spicy but... here I am, filling up on almonds.  I should probably stop eating these and opt for a piece of wholegrain toast but they're very addictive.

Dark chocolate-covered nuts are a favorite of mine.  I would've loved to make these with pistachios but I can never bear to buy pistachios.  I know, I just spent £25 on lunch, but I can't bear to spend £4 on a bag of pistachios.

I got the recipe from Food52 and these are fantastic because they're quite healthy as well!  Again, fits right into your January diet. 

Recipe from Food52
Makes 2 cups
Ingredients
1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks
1 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
2 cups dry-roasted, unsalted almonds
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tbsp demerara sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt flakes

Method
Line a tray with a sheet of baking paper.

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil together over a double boiler (ie have it in a bowl over a pan of simmering water - bowl should not touch the water).  

When melted, remove from heat and stir in the chocolate.

Pour the chocolate out onto the lined tray and, using two forks, quickly separate the almonds from each other so none of them stick together.  Put the tray in the fridge for 15 minutes for the chocolate coating to firm up.

In the mean time, in another tray mix together the sugar, cinnamon and salt.  Toss the almonds in the mixture then get rid of the excess by placing the almonds in a sieve and shaking lightly. 

Place in an airtight container in the fridge.