{"id":695,"date":"2011-05-28T10:58:57","date_gmt":"2011-05-28T15:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/?p=695"},"modified":"2011-05-28T10:58:57","modified_gmt":"2011-05-28T15:58:57","slug":"making-chocolate-bark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tastytangents.com\/?p=695","title":{"rendered":"Making Chocolate Bark"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_703\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/chocolate_bark_ingredients_.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-703\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-703\" title=\"chocolate_bark_ingredients_\" src=\"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/chocolate_bark_ingredients_.jpg\" alt=\"Ingredients for Chocolate Bark\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-703\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ingredients for Chocolate Bark<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;ve always been a little bit afraid of working with chocolate. The idea that it could suddenly turn some strange, gray colour or seize up just because I heated it too much or a drop of water got in there was very discouraging.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, I have an old stove, so trying to control a hot water bath in order to temper the chocolate was also quite intimidating.<\/p>\n<p>But chocolate bark is one of my favourites and one of my dad&#8217;s favourites, and finding good dark chocolate bark other than plain almond is both difficult and expensive.<\/p>\n<p>So, I hunted down a couple of recipes and used the microwave in really short increments (30 seconds at a time at half power) to melt the chocolate before adding some yummy ingredients.<\/p>\n<p>I opted to try three recipes. First,\u00a0Oprah.com&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.oprah.com\/food\/Dark-Chocolate-Bark-with-Pistachios-Sweetened-Dried-Cherries-and-Pumpkin-Seeds\" target=\"_blank\">Dark Chocolate Bark with Pistachios, Sweetened Dried Cherries and Pumpkin Seeds<\/a>. This recipe had the best directions for melting the chocolate and combining all the ingredients.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_700\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/nut_fruit_bark_110523.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-700\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-700\" title=\"nut_fruit_bark_110523\" src=\"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/nut_fruit_bark_110523.jpg\" alt=\"Dark Chocolate Bark with Pistachios, Dried Cherries and Pumpkin Seeds\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-700\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dark Chocolate Bark with Pistachios, Dried Cherries and Pumpkin Seeds<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Second, Epicurious.com&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.epicurious.com\/recipes\/food\/views\/Winter-Dried-Fruit-and-Nut-Chocolate-Bark-240687\" target=\"_blank\">Winter Dried Fruit and Nut Bark<\/a> with almonds, raisins, ginger and sea salt.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_701\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/almond_ginger_bark_110523.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-701\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-701\" title=\"almond_ginger_bark_110523\" src=\"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/almond_ginger_bark_110523.jpg\" alt=\"Winter Dried Fruit and Nut Chocolate Bark\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-701\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Winter Dried Fruit and Nut Chocolate Bark<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Finally, I followed the ratio of chocolate to nuts and fruit in the above recipes and combined Belgian milk chocolate with pecans, marshmallows and coconut.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_702\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/pecan_marshmallow_bark_1105.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-702\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-702\" title=\"pecan_marshmallow_bark_1105\" src=\"http:\/\/tastytangents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/pecan_marshmallow_bark_1105.jpg\" alt=\"Pecan, Marshmallow and Coconut Chocolate Bark\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-702\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pecan, Marshmallow and Coconut Chocolate Bark<\/p><\/div>\n<p>After all my research, I decided not to use chocolate chips, because there were so many warnings about the oiliness and the lumpiness they could cause while trying to melt them. They&#8217;ve been made to hold their shape in cookies, not to melt into a smooth mass.<\/p>\n<p>Instead I picked up some semi-sweet chocolate baking squares and some bittersweet and milk chocolate Belgian chocolate pastilles. You can get the squares at any grocery store and I found the pastilles at my local bulk store.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t find a big difference in the taste or texture between the pastilles and the squares, so I wouldn&#8217;t hesitate to use either going forward.<\/p>\n<p>I think all three recipes were delicious, though next time I&#8217;ll buy mini marshmallows instead of trying to cut up the big ones&#8230;so sticky!<\/p>\n<p>Now that I&#8217;ve conquered my fear of working with chocolate, who knows what&#8217;s next!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve always been a little bit afraid of working with chocolate. The idea that it could suddenly turn some strange, gray colour or seize up just because I heated it too much or a drop of water got in there &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tastytangents.com\/?p=695\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[59,60,263],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Making Chocolate Bark - Tasty Tangents<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tastytangents.com\/?p=695\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making Chocolate Bark - Tasty Tangents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;ve always been a little bit afraid of working with chocolate. 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