So easy it feels sinful but it makes a great presentation, and the combinations are almost endless. When I go to a meal at someones home or to a pot luck, if I suggest bringing this as my contribution, I am never turned down.

Step 1: What to Dip?

Almost anything you like with chocolate can be dipped or mixed to make clusters.

For fresh fruit I have dipped strawberries, grapes, clementine sections, and pineapple all with good outcomes.
For dried fruit I have dipped apricots, pineapple, papaya, peaches, pears, and candied ginger
For clusters I have mixed mini marshmallows with mashed up peppermint or cinnamon pieces, and toffee would work too.
For more Adult tastes I have mixed chopped apricots, raisins, cranberries, or currents with almonds, pecans, walnuts, or macadamias.

A few Tips:

Fresh fruit will wilt relatively quickly so I dip these as close to the time of serving as possible, preferably the same day, though I have occasionally done them the night before.
Also choose the most perfect fruit you can, as the sweetness and full flavor of good fruit compliments the chocolate so nicely
Choose good chocolate. I always use dark with the highest cocoa content I can, again because the flavor I think is best, and once you have made this presentation, you want the flavor to live up to the expectations.

go wild!

Step 2: Dipping Fresh Fruit

For the chocolate here I used Ghirardelli 60% cocoa dark chocolate but any dark real chocolate will work.

I would not recommend using the chocolate flavored morsels

The strawberries are washed and dried.

Extra moisture will keep the chocolate from coating the berries well

The chocolate can be melted in a double boiler or on low (level 3 for me) in the microwave.

I leave it for 3 minutes, stir it , and put it back in for another 3 minutes and usually with that it's creamy and ready to use. If you go too high, the chocolate will burn.

Also I work with small batches of chocolate using only enough to cover one kind inside at a time. I do this because if some of your ingredients (particularly the candies and nuts) get mixed into the chocolate, it will begin to stiffen and won't coat the fruit or other items well. you may lose a batch of chocolate that way.

Step 3: Doing the Dipping

Leaving the greens on the strawberries, use those to hold onto the fruit when you dip it.
I cover the fruit about 2/3's of the way up, and then let the excess chocolate drip off before placing the fruit on a cookie sheet to harden.

Step 4: A Place to Set a While

I use a cookie sheet that is narrow enough to get into the refrigerator
I will either lay wax paper over the sheet or use plastic wrap as I did here to cover the sheet.
The chocolate comes away from these covers well once hardened and the wraps can be reused to pack the chocolates once made.

Step 5: The Friut After Dipping

If not too much excess chocolate is allowed to stay on the fruit, the process will move along pretty quickly with minimal mess to clean up.

Step 6: Dried Fruit for Dipping or Clusters

Apricots can be be dipped individually or they can be chopped and mixed with nuts for clusters

Step 7: Dipping the Dried Fruit

When dipping the dried fruit individually, if using your fingers, dip about half way up.
If the fruit is handled with small tongs, they can be dipped further into the chocolate but with fingers that gets messy.

Step 8: Setting the Dipped Apricots

Just as with the fresh fruit, the apricots are allowed to drip back into the chocolate to remove the excess and then set out on the covered cookie sheet

Step 9: Apricot and Pistachio Clusters

Here I mixed the chopped apricots with pistachios
I then added just enough chocolate to coat the nuts and fruit binding them together

Step 10: Making the Clusters

I use a teaspoon to dole out the coated mix onto the cookie sheet.

Step 11: Letting the Chocolate Set

Once the cookie sheet is filled or once I have dipped all the fruit/nuts I want, The sheet goes into the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to set after which these treats will easily separate from the plastic wrap or wax paper.

Step 12: Mint and Mallow Clusters

For this mix, I use the hard candy mints broken into shards.

This can get messy if not carefully contained.
Putting the candies in a sturdy plastic bag, I use a meat mallet to break them up
I then mix shards with the mini marshmallows and add just enough chocolate to coat the candy

Step 13: Spooned Onto the Cookie Sheet

I spoon the candy out onto the wrapped cookie sheet
To distinguish these from the less kid friendly clusters I will add sprinkles to the tops
Nut & fruit clusters can similarly be sprinkled with nut dust to distinguish them as well
The red shards are ground up red hots which can be used both in the marshmallow and cinnamon clusters, and as a sprinkle on top
Caution: red hots will get sticky in a humid environment

Step 14:

Finally, once the fruits have been dipped, the clusters made, and all the chocolate set, they can be arranged however you like.
Here I used an egg plate as it allowed me to set up the strawberries nicely.
All but the fresh fruit can be made ahead and stored in bags or containers but should be kept cool (I leave them in the refrigerator) so the chocolate does not run and get messy.