Gluten-free chocolate bark

Happy week between Christmas and New Year to you all. I am in the position where I am working, but I don’t really know what day it is and I am still eating stuffing for breakfast (the trifle was finished yesterday). I made quite a few dishes this week, but something I made for some friends as a gift was gluten-free chocolate bark, and although there are many variations of what you can add here, I feel I came away with quite the winner!  

Ingredients
280 grams chopped dark chocolate (I did part plain and part Lindt orange)
Dried cranberries
Almond and cashews (mine were roasted and salted)
One freeze dried strawberry (literally I only used one)
40 grams caramel chocolate drops (you could use milk or white chocolate here)
Dash of sea salt

Directions
Line a brownie tin or large baking sheet with baking parchment.
Melt the chopped dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. I prefer to melt larger quantities of chocolate in a double boiler as I have here.
While the chocolate is melting, break up the almond and cashews into small pieces.
Once melted and smooth, pour the chocolate into the prepared tin – allow to stand for a few minutes until beginning to set.
Melt the caramel chocolate drops, this can be done in the microwave in bursts of 30 seconds until melted, add the salt and mix.  
On half of the chocolate add your cranberries and nuts, pushing them down slightly into the chocolate and crush the freeze dried strawberry over the top.
On the other half drizzle over the melted caramel chocolate. Take a toothpick and drag it through the melted caramel chocolate to make a swirl pattern.
Chill for at least 2 hours until set. Break up into pieces.

You could use milk or white chocolate instead of the caramel, but I find white chocolate a little too sweet even against the more bitter dark chocolate. The cranberries and cashews are great, and the freeze dried strawberry brings an additional burst of colour, but I do love anything salted caramel, and I think that this combination is an absolute winner. I wrapped this in baking paper and popped in into a tin as a great gift (if I say so myself).  

Christmas Chocolate Bark

Happy Christmas all! I know it is Christmas Day, but I really wanted to post this and the last few days have been a little chaotic. I finished work on Friday and tonight I fly to Australia. But right now it is Christmas Chocolate Bark time!

I saw this recipe in Good Housekeeping magazine when I was in the UK in October and, since I have a minor chocolate bark obsession, I thought yes!

Ingredients

400 grams chopped dark chocolate
Pretzels (halved if you wish)
Red M&M’s
Flaked almonds
1 candy cane crushed

Directions

Line two 20.5cm brownie tins with baking parchment.
Melt the chopped dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. While the chocolate is melting, prepare the decorations.
Use halved pretzels to create antlers, red m&m’s for the nose, and flaked almonds dotted with a little melted chocolate for the eyes. I left the pretzels whole as it ended up being easier – maybe gluten-free pretzels don’t break as nicely as normal ones! Once melted and smooth, pour the chocolate into the prepared tin – allow to stand for a few minutes until beginning to set, this will make it easier to decorate.
Decorate making Rudolph faces. Finally sprinkle over 1 crushed candy cane, and chill for 2hr until set. Chop around the Rudolph faces with a sharp knife to create shards.

(I may have found some gold glitter in my cupboard and gone a little mad with it, as one does).

They also had a Snowman Bark recipe that uses white chocolate, white chocolate buttons, pretzels for snowman arms, mini Reece’s peanut butter cups for the hat and sprinkles for the eyes. I was not sure if I could find gluten-free white chocolate buttons so I rather made the Rudolph bark. But as with all things, always check the ingredients as they can vary country to country.

Have a happy gluten-free holiday!

You can find the original recipes here

Easter chocolate bark

 

I spent the whole weekend telling myself that I would not make Easter chocolate bark…chocolate eggs on top of chocolate is that really necessary I thought? But then I kept seeing this one picture online that just kept following me (you know how it is) and yesterday afternoon I relented. I realise Easter is now over, but if you have some eggs left lying around then this might be what you need to do; just in case you did not eat enough chocolate this past weekend!

Ingredients

• 150 grams dark chocolate
• 150 grams white chocolate
• 100grams speckled eggs

Directions
Melt the chocolate separately. Pour the dark chocolate onto a baking sheet, then add the white chocolate and swirl together.
Place your eggs in a zip lock bag and smash away.
Add smashed eggs to chocolate and place in the fridge to set.

This is ridiculously easy to make and really rather good to eat.
I think that making this bark, or any type of bark, is really a great idea. It looks really impressive yet takes minutes to make, and as I have said before, you can control your ingredients and make sure that everything really is gluten-free!