Easy Chocolate Mendiants

Actually this is a cheater's way of making mendiants. But at this time of year you need to save time whenever you can.

Buy some melting chocolate disks. DON'T melt them. Well only a few, like the broken ones. Now spread a layer of melted chocolate on the disks. But not too thin, you want it to hold your toppings. Looking back on it, I should have spread the chocolate right to the edge of the disks. Next time.

Garnish with your chosen toppings. I chose dried cranberries, almonds, cashews, walnuts, a few butternuts and pretzel fish.

Boom! Done!

To be honest, the only thing you have to be careful of is the melting of the chocolate. It has to be done properly or your chocolate will cloud. I thought I was smart and melted it in a little metal creamer in a pot of water on the stove.  First off, I shouldn't have used metal....no heat conducting container! Next, it shouldn't have been right in the water.  Double boiler would have been the way to go.  Or microwave the chocolate 10-15 seconds at a time.  When there are soft lumps left, just stir them up.  

So they looked beautiful when first done but then dried with a few cloudy spots on them.  Still ok to eat but doesn't look very nice. 

So I got some white chocolate, melted it VERY slowly in the microwave, and drizzled it over the tops.
Problem solved!