Lovers of dark chocolate, be warned. What you are about to read could change your life. If not your life, definitely your waistline.
Several Christmases ago, I went on a mission to find the best dark chocolate bark recipe on the planet. I experimented with flavours, brands and toppings. I taste-tested myself into drawstring pants. Many recipes were pretty good (a pistachio/cherry version looked particularly Christmas-y) but one was mind-blowing. My take on this popular recipe from epicurious has become my go-to Christmas treat.
Milk chocolate and white chocolate lovers are always nonplussed by it. But to dark chocolate lovers, this stuff is the bomb. I still get chocolate requests from yoga teachers that I haven’t seen in years.
Ingredients
- 6 teaspoon anise seeds
- 2 cups dried chopped apricots
- 2 cups almonds
- 1/2 cup chopped ginger
- 1/2 cup chopped dried figs
- 36 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), finely chopped (I’ve always preferred Bernard Callibaut. I haven’t been able to get my hands on Bernard’s new Papa Chocolat yet.)
Preparation
- Finely grind anise in an electric coffee/spice grinder.
- Cover two baking sheets with apricots, figs, ginger and almonds.
- Melt chocolate in a double boiler or a small metal bowl set over a small saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally, until smooth.
- Stir anise into chocolate. Pour over fruit mixture.
- Chill until firm, about 30 minutes, then break into pieces.
Put on drawstring pants. Enjoy!
~Chris
Sadly Papa Chocolat doesn’t make couverture chocolate… yet.
I can’t wait to try it when he does. I’m picking up some of his new goodies later today!
This is the Christmas treat I’ll be making! Thanks for the recipe.
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papa chocolat has the best Grand Cru Single Estate Bittersweet Chocolate – perfect for making this bark. (75% cocoa). It comes in a galette (button-size) and is actually preferable for melting for recipes such as this because of its small size. $9 for 200g. Available at the shop Willow Park Village in Calgary! (I work there and use papa’s chocolate for all my baking).
Thanks, Sheri. At the time I wrote this, Papa Chocolat wasn’t yet making chocolate for baking. Great to know!