Dark Chocolate Bark
This is the easiest yet most chocolate packed treat one can make. This dark chocolate bark recipe is simple and looks impressive, making it a great option for gifts or as a sweet something to offer at the end of a dinner party if you don’t fancy pudding. Clare Heal, this recipe’s creator, opted for 2 different types of chocolate chips: Food Thoughts Luxury Dark Chocolate Chips and Luxury White Chocolate Chips. Marbling two chocolates together gave a beautiful effect and gave a wonderful balance between the intensity of the dark chocolate chips and the delicate vanilla flavour of the white chocolate chips.
Our Dark Chocolate Bark recipe allows for a lot of improvisation and flavour experimentation. You can pick your toppings and be as playful, festive and creative as you’d like. For this recipe, Claire used chopped pistachio nuts and dried morello cherries for a pretty and sophisticated combination. But the world is your oyster when it comes to other possibilities.
Topping ideas
- Almost any dried fruit and nuts work well together. What about the classic combination of plump juicy raisins and roasted hazelnuts? Or toasted flaked almonds and tangy chopped apricots?
- Toasted coconut shards and dried pineapple are totally tropical and especially nice if you reverse the quantities of chocolate: swirl the dark into the white.
- Cranberries and walnuts give a Christmassy vibe.
- A favourite of ours – popcorn, broken up pretzels and a pinch of rock salt for a salty-sweet homage to cinema snacks
- Add a little spice and crunch to conjure those famous historical chocolate lovers the Aztecs: mix orange zest, cinnamon and cloves into the melted dark chocolate then sprinkle on some chilli flakes and Food Thoughts Roasted Cacao Nibs.
You will need
- 200g Food Thoughts Luxury Dark Chocolate Chips
- 100g Food Thought Luxury White Chocolate Chips
- Toppings of your choice (see below for suggestions)
Method
Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Put your Food Thoughts Luxury Dark Chocolate Chips in a heat proof bowl and melt. You can do this either on the stove top over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave using two or three 1-minute bursts, stirring in between. Do the same with the Food Thoughts Luxury White Chocolate Chips. Let both chocolates cool slightly for five minutes or so.
Pour the melted dark chocolate onto the lined tray in a rough rectangle shape. Drizzle the melted white chocolate over it in swirls. It doesn’t really matter what it looks like at this point. If it’s blobby or uneven, don’t worry. It will all get evened out and made beautiful in the marbling process.
Use a toothpick or skewer or just the tip of a sharp knife to marble the white chocolate into the dark. Moving side to side in a figure-of-eight motion is a good bet for getting nice even swirls.
Sprinkle over your toppings and let it set. Popping the tray in the freezer will help this along. Once the chocolate is hard, break it up into shards.