Chocolate Walnuts Basic Bark - easy and simple recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is chocolate bark made of? ›

Chocolate Bark is the easiest 5-ingredient snack you'll ever whip up. All you need are 5 simple (and completely customizable!) ingredients – chocolate, pepitas, dried cherries, coconut flakes, and any type of nuts.

The bark doesn't involve any molds or dipping techniques—and it's delicious! Whenever working with chocolate it must be tempered; we're about to simplify the science and make it easy for you. Just keep an instant-read thermometer handy for spot checking temperatures.

what is bark? Bark is simply melted chocolate that's poured into a sheet pan and broken into pieces once it's set. You can use literally any kind of chocolate – chocolate chips, melting wafers, fancy “feves” – and it will always come out great (see: cobweb bark, red white and blue bark, and almond butter bark!).

So not only is this bark delicious, it is nutritious, too! (Dark chocolate is also a great source of antioxidants along with nutrients like magnesium and iron. OK I'll stop with the nutrition facts for now). The salty-sweet taste and crunchy and smooth textures make for a super satisfying dessert.

Almond bark (also known as vanilla flavored candy coating) is a chocolate-like confection made with vegetable fats instead of cocoa butter and with coloring and flavors added. It can be bought in packages, blocks, or round discs where candy and baking supplies are sold.

That's because your chocolate wasn't tempered. Tempered chocolate sets at room temperature and has a snap just like a chocolate bar you buy from the store.

Chocolate bark should be stored cool but not too cold, remember chocolate can sweat and become aqueous in the cold. Better a dark, cool, cellar type room. Airtight container, away from any strong smells and this should do the trick.

To keep your chocolate bark from melting, a proper tempering process is necessary. Tempering is a process where the chocolate is brought to certain temperatures, which essentially optimizes the form of the cocoa butter fat crystals and keeps it stable.

And while candy melts are great for cake pops, in a recipe like this, you'll really taste the difference between actual chocolate and candy melts. I recommend Ghirardelli, Guittard, or Baker's brand bars of chocolate when making bark.

What to add to chocolate to make it harden? ›

You don't add ingredients to chocolate to make it harden, you temper it by heating it to a specific temperature, cooling it to another temperature, then heating it again. This causes the chocolate to crystalize in a way that leaves it hard and shiny. The temperatures are different for different kinds of chocolate.

Once the chocolate has cooled, it's then cut up or broken into smaller pieces. It's easy to see, then, why the most commonly accepted origin of chocolate "bark" comes from the fact that the treat, when finished, resembles the craggy surface of a tree.

It is made from cacao beans: The seeds stored in the yellow fruit of the cacao tree.

In conclusion, white chocolate and almond bark are popular treats with different flavors and textures. White chocolate is made from cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids, and vanilla. In contrast, almond bark is made from sugar or corn syrup, vegetable oil or shortening, almonds or other nuts, and flavorings.

This particular chocolate bark is both an all encompassing sensory treat. It's great for gifting and it checks off all the boxes by being salty, sweet, crunchy, aromatic, and decadent. My rule of thumb is no matter what type of chocolate you use, make sure it's good quality for the best flavour.