Here's a beautiful dessert that's so super simple to make, yet looks and tastes so indulgent - chocolate bark!
The neat thing about chocolate bark is you don't need an exact recipe to make it. You can get creative with the quantity of chocolate you use, the types of toppings and how much, there are no rules! I've put the below recipe as a guide, but I encourage you to use up whatever nuts/seeds/dried fruit is in your pantry - chocolate bark is all about taking ordinary ingredients and making something insanely tasty and extraordinary. When decorating use a variety of toppings so when you bite into it you'll experience all sorts of textures and burst of favours. Juicy pieces of chopped dried fruit, crunchy nuts/seeds/coconut chips, sea salt and freeze dried fruit are all lovely.
When selecting chocolate go for a high quality 85% or above dark chocolate. You can totally make your own chocolate at home using cocoa butter/coconut oil, cacao powder + sweetener (there's a tonne of homemade recipes online), but you can also get beautiful dark chocolate at the supermarket which will do the trick - my favourite is by a company found in most supermarkets called Green & Blacks Organic. Indulging in a little high quality chocolate can actually be quite nutritious – it’s ridiculously high in antioxidants, which help to fight damaging free-radicals in the body, as well as being packed with beneficial minerals, including iron, essential for blood production, and magnesium, needed for healthy muscle function. It’s also soul food – chocolate brings happiness.
Chocolate Bark
Ingredients:
Chocolate
200g 85% or higher quality dark chocolate
Toppings
4 tbsp freeze dried raspberries
3 tbsp sunflower seeds
3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp chopped peanuts
1/4 cup coconut chips
1 tbsp chia seeds
Light sprinkle of sea salt
...whatever else you'd like! Chopped nuts, dried fruit, sesame seeds, shredded coconut are all great - or just use whatever's in the pantry and make it your own!
Method:
1. Melt your chocolate. To do this break down the chocolate into chunks and place into a heat-proof bowl. Place the bowl over a saucepan with a little water in the bottom (although not enough water for the heatproof bowl and water to touch). Bring the water to a simmer, then turn onto a low heat and melt chocolate using a spoon to stir.
2. Line a large oven tray with baking paper. Pour melted chocolate over baking paper. To evenly spread the chocolate pick up the tray and tilt from side to side - feel free to spread the chocolate as thin as you like.
3. While the chocolate is still melted sprinkle over your different toppings. There is no right or wrong way to do this - get creative! I'll sometimes sprinkle little trails of toppings over the chocolate, or otherwise sprinkle it over evenly.
4. Pop the tray in the fridge for an hour to set.
5. Remove tray and break up the bark into large chunks. Enjoy! Keep these in the fridge in an airtight container until you're ready to eat them.
