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

FAQs

How to make bark for a cake? ›

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!).

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.

Set the oven to 225 degrees and place the sheet pan in the oven. Watch the chocolate carefully as it starts to melt (about 10 minutes). Remove once all three bars have melted. Take the bars out of the oven and, using a spoon, fork, or toothpick, swirl the different chocolates around until they are evenly dispersed.

Combine ingredients like walnuts, cereal, raisins, chocolate chips, and dried fruit for a flavorful, quick snack. Need more snack inspiration? Try this Vanilla Walnut Berry Trail Mix or Spiced Walnut Trail Mix recipe for a fun combination of flavors!

Carefully melt the dark chocolate and spread on parchment paper. Roll it up and let it cool down. Then roll it up and the chocolate will break automatically into bark like pieces.

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.

Stored in an airtight container in the fridge the homemade chocolate bark recipe will stay good for 2-3 weeks. If you decide to leave the chocolate bark out at room temperature it will last for about 5 days. Therefore, I definitely recommend storing it in the fridge to extend the bark's shelf life.

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.

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.

Most chocolatiers and candymakers recommend tempering chocolate for bark because it gives chocolate a beautifully glossy finish and a satisfying, clean snap when broken. It also sets up more quickly and keeps longer at room temperature.

How do you keep chocolate bark from sticking? ›

The simple approach is to skip the wire rack and place the dipped confections on parchment paper, waxed paper or a silicone mat. (Some use plastic wrap or aluminum foil, but this may stick as well. Oiling helps.) After cooling, they should come off easily.

Peanuts, pecans, almonds, and hazelnuts have distinct flavors that go well with dark chocolate. Walnuts are a little bit milder and therefore work better with milk chocolate. Finally, nuts such as macadamias taste best with rich white chocolate due to their even milder flavor.

Place walnuts in boiling water for five minutes to remove bitter taste.

Shruti Bharadwaj, Senior Clinical Dietician, Narayana Hrudayalaya says soaking walnuts helps improve their digestibility and also remove phytic acid and tannin. "Soaking can also help prevent indigestion as it helps reduce gas forming compounds. It also reduces polyphenols and increase nutrient availability.

For the bark, place the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water. Heat until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and set aside for 15 minutes to cool slightly and thicken.

Chop up tree branches, bark, and trimmings.

Go around your house and collect fallen branches, bark, or tree trimmings that you pruned from your plants. Put on safety glasses and process the wood and bark through a wood chipper to make a mulch. Bark and wood mulch can be used on its own or combined with leaf mulch.

Cut, chip, peel and scrap off the outer tougher bark until you reach the soft inner layer. You don't need to go very deep. The layer that clings to the inner bark, is the most nutritious and softest, so this is the part you want. Peel and cut off this inner layer to eat.