Mocha Coconut Clusters - Random Recipes and new Kenco Millicano

Whilst I had this months Random Recipe challenge somewhere in the back of my mind, Dom kindly reminded me over twitter the other night that it was due soon. As promised, I went immediately to the bookshelves, and with his advice on which shelf to choose (five to choose from, excluding the two magazine shelves!), plus the guidance that it must be book number 18 – I pulled out a book titled Sweet Treats: 30 minutes or Less that I had picked up several years back cheaply but I had never made anything from it before. Though I got off lightly, book number 19 was an awful book involving pre-packaged crap from the 1980’s!

The first recipe I flicked too was titled ‘Mexican glazed Pumpkin. Erm yeah no, sorry, I am cheating, its not exactly pumpkin season and in general it was never going to happen! I decided to re-flick at random and fortunately the book opened at Mocha Coconut Clusters! Far more to my taste! Also I had everything in the cupboards which sealed the deal!

Makes 30 (ish)

Ingredients – see notes after!

115g milk chocolate
2 tbsp butter -
1tsp instant coffee granules
55g desiccated coconut

Notes: –

a) I used Tesco’s 33% cocoa Ecuador milk chocolate, despite being more of a plain chocolate girl I rather liked this one, was smooth and creamy.

b) 2 tbsp butter – what an awkward measurement?! Nearly broke my plastic measuring spoon trying to carve
it! Roughly weighed in at 25g.

c) Coffee – I used new Kenco Millicano, which is also my new favourite instant coffee, though it tastes more like filter coffee! Please see the bottom of this post for more information about it.

d) 55g coconut is a lie! I made the recipe up as per the instructions, tried to spoon onto the baking tray but it spread out rather than 'clustered'. I scraped the mixture back in the pan, added about 4 heaped dessert spoons more of coconut until it was more solidified and able to form into clusters, rather than smoosh!

So after all that, if you still fancy having a go, they are actually very quick and easy to make, and more importantly I rather like them! The initial taste is the chocolate, then comes the crispy coconut and its texture, then a gorgeous coffee flavour hits you gently, yet firmly. Yum! Though strictly for coffee lovers only!

1) Gently melt the butter and chocolate together. The recipe suggests doing this in a bowl over simmering water; however I use Meyer Analon saucepans which have some fancy coating and never bother with this stage!

2) Remove from the heat and stir in the coffee until its dissolved

3) Stir in the coconut, referring to above guidance, use a teaspoon (and fingers!) to spoon small heaps onto a tray lined with baking paper.

4) Place in the fridge to set – this doesn’t take very long. Transfer into petit four cases and bring to stand at room temperature briefly before serving. The clusters will keep for several days refrigerated.

With thanks also to Sophie at Golin Harris and Kenco for sending me the lovely goody bag that brightened up a very dull afternoon during my recent bout of illness. I had regrettably been unable to attend an event launching the new Kenco Millicano instant coffee, which is made from a combination of instant coffee and finely-milled beans and is available now in the shops.

Amongst other things, I had been unable to tolerate coffee during the last few months and I had been missing it terribly, so the coffee arrived with perfect timing as better health thankfully returned! I celebrated my return to coffee with a welcome cup of coffee made using the Kenco Millicano, along with the lovely Helen from Fuss Free Flavours who braved our local bus service and very kindly visited me for lunch.

As I've gotten older, I have become quite fussy with my coffee, I like it strong, black and a little sugar to sweeten, (or tar as my dearest likes to refer to it as!) Unfortunately in my first cup I added too much water and it was a little weak for my liking, though on my second cup I perfected it and used my favourite small bunny mug instead, a heaped teaspoon of Millicano and a spoonful of sugar. Bliss! The coffee has all the convenience of an instant yet has the smooth taste of filter coffee, particularly handy as I am currently cafetiere-less and it saves me buying a replacement!