First off, I apologize to all the vegans and dieters out there because this post is a lot of sugar and a lot of chocolate-y goodness.
Today's post is all about my mama's homemade chocolate holiday bark. A treat that almost seems like tradition every holiday season in my household.
Now, with this recipe you CAN substitute items to fit your dietary needs; if you're vegan you can use vegan chocolate, if you're gluten free you can use gluten free candies, whatever floats your boat! My moms not vegan or anything like that so she makes the fattiest, sugariest treats. Yum. Yum. Isn't that what the holidays are about anyway??
Here is what you will need
White Chocolate Candy Cane
- 2 cups white chocolate chips
- handful of mini candy canes, crunched
Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt
- 2 cups milk chocolate
- teaspoon of sea salt
- handful of almonds, crunched
- caramel (your going to use this to drizzle on the bark)
Tools
- baking tray (with parchment paper obvi)
- two pots (or a steaming set)
In preparation you are going to need two pots, one smaller one and one larger one so the smaller one can fit into the other (we are going to be steaming, if you have a steaming set you can use that instead!!). With the bigger pot, you are going to fill it so it is about a quarter full.
Put the water filled pot on a burner on med-high and wait for it to boil. With the smaller pot: fill it with the desired chocolate chips (I suggest starting with white chocolate) and place that pot on the boiling larger pot. Make sure the pot isn't touching the water, if it is remove enough water. With the small pot on top of the larger pot the chocolate will slowly start to soften, make sure you are constantly stirring the chocolate with a cooking spoon as chocolate can burn very easily (lesson learned over here).
When all the lumps of chocolate have melted remove your pot while still mixing.
Pull out your large baking tray lined with parchment paper. Quickly (while the chocolate is still melted) pour the chocolate evenly so that it covers only half of the pan. Do the same with your other type of chocolate.
My suggestion is always to start with your lightest coloured chocolate, because if you're using the same pan the darker colour will transfer onto the lighter one and make the white chocolate look gross and we don't want that!
Once all the chocolate has been placed on the tray it is now time to pull out your toppings. Try and do this as fast as possible as the chocolate can dry pretty fast.
For the milk chocolate side sprinkle on your almonds and sea salt. For the white chocolate side sprinkle on your candy canes or whatever topping you chose!
Take you baking tray and put it into the freezer for about 30-40 minutes.
After 30-40 minutes pull out the tray and bring out your caramel sauce for the milk chocolate side. Drizzle it on the top very lightly.
Put the pan back in the freezer for the night.
The next morning, take out the tray and place it on the counter. Bark looks better just broken with your hands, take the chocolate and just brake it up into palm sized pieces AND VOILA ! The most festive, yummy, chocolaty, treat for the holiday :)
I hope you enjoyed this yummy post! I mean the bark isn't going to last till Christmas because it's so delicious but it's nice to show that you tried! With that, I hope you have an amazing evening and until my next post, I will talk to you guys later!
Nicole J