Roasted pecan, dried cranberry and gold leaf milk chocolate bark

Chocolate bark is really fun & easy to make (kids love making this stuff!). You can also decorate it with almost anything you like, nuts, dried fruits, seeds, crushed candies, honeycomb etc.

The whole idea of chocolate bark is that it’s rough in texture and look, just like bark. You can cut it in neat squares, or my favourite, break it up in rough pieces.

It’s also great to use up left over tempered chocolate, either plain or if you’ve mixed in crushed nuts to use for coating truffles.

This is another chocolate that is great as a gift. Very quick and easy to make, you can be as creative as you like with toppings and it looks delicious!

Below is the base recipe for chocolate bark, but I've also included three flavour ideas.

I really loved the roasted pecan nuts with the tangy cranberries and I absolutely loved the colours of the red with the gold leaf, very Christmassy!

The crystallised ginger went beautifully with the banana chips and cashews and melded beautifully with the creamy white chocolate.

But our absolute favourite was the coffee bean, apricot & hazelnut bark. My hubby and I couldn't stop nibbling at it!

Not only does chocolate bark make a tasty stand alone treat, you can also use it as a garnish on cakes, cupcakes, ice-cream sundaes and desserts. Everything about it is fantastic!

The combinations I made were:

1) White chocolate bark with cashews, banana chips & crystallised ginger

2) Milk chocolate bark with dried apricots, roasted hazelnuts & crushed coffee beans

3) Milk chocolate bark with roasted pecan nuts, dried cranberries & gold leaf

Chocolate Bark

Ingredients

Milk/Dark/White Chocolate, tempered (any amount, from 7 oz. (200g) to 14 oz. (400g))

Various nuts, seeds, candies, dried fruits or anything you like in any quantity you like

Directions

Line a baking tray with parchment paper
Temper your chocolate using your preferred method
Once tempered, spread the chocolate over the parchment paper
Sprinkle your ingredients over the chocolate
Leave to set
Tip: To help speed up the setting, you can put it in the fridge for about 15-30min. Don’t leave it in the fridge to avoid the chocolate from sweating (water droplets will form on the chocolate)
Either break or cut into pieces
Store at room temperature in an airtight container