In the top pot of a double boiler, melt chocolate chips and shortening over simmering water in the bottom pot. Stir until smooth. Remove from the heat; stir in raisins and almonds. Drop by tablespoons onto waxed paper or parchment. Chill until ready to serve.

A lot of chocolate recipes call for using shortening when melting chocolate. This is an improvement from the paraffin that was used. The paraffin is used to keep the chocolate from "blooming" or getting that chalky white covering you see sometimes on cheap chocolate confections. I think the shortening is eewww (it's a mental block), so I use as high a quality chocolate as I can afford at the time, and I melt the chocolate as slooooooooooowly as I can to stop the bloom. It works for me.