Dark Chocolate Bark

Chocolate bark can be covered in chopped, roasted nuts like almonds, or filled with chewy, sweet dried fruit. Whether you choose semi-sweet or dark, chocolate bark is a come-one-come-all treat. Cut it into classic shards, or use my technique for creating cute, seasonal, or festive chocolate bark shapes. It's a literal snap to make!

Jump to:

• The Story
• Buying Chocolate
• The Ingredients
• On Tempering
• Cheat Tempering Method
• The Steps
• French-Style Chocolate Bark
• With Kids
• On Cutting
• Making Shapes
• 📖 Recipe
• More Chocolate Recipes
• 💬 Reviews

The Story

Chocolate bark is a rich concoction of melted chocolate with a variety of mix-ins that are spread and cooled, then cut or broken into shards. The freeform chocolate treat is a perfect vehicle for nuts, fruit, candy, pretzels, and more. Even melting and cooling a bar of high-quality dark chocolate and sprinkling pink sea salt on top make for a delicious indulgence. It is a quick and easy process that doesn't require any special equipment or skill. And you can melt and spread a batch with pantry staples.

Buying Chocolate

There is no need to overthink when shopping for chocolate. Unless you love diving down the rabbit hole of artisanal brands and varieties. However, the better the quality of chocolate you buy, the more seductive and delicious your bark. That doesn't mean we need to spend more on a chocolate snack than on dinner. Trust me, it could easily happen.

I tend to keep my local market's brand of organic dark chocolate in the pantry for such occasions. And for clients, I source bars commercial couverture (premium chocolate). If you choose to work with couverture, it will need to be tempered using the professional technique recommended by the brand. Not with the steps described here. Here is a list of Fairtrade chocolate brands, if you are interested in buying from a chocolate producer that chooses respectful farming practices and sustainability.

Steer clear of any chocolate that contains excessive emulsifiers or processed palm or vegetable oils. Most brands use soy lecithin which is fine in small amounts, a better choice would be sunflower lecithin. Avoid chocolate candy melts from the craft store for chocolate bark, they are meant for coating and are typically artificially colored and flavored.

On Cocoa Percentages

For a luscious, nuanced dark chocolate bark, choose a chocolate that is at least 63% cocoa. The higher the percentage listed on the label, the more chocolate liquor or cocoa solids in the chocolate. The darker the chocolate, the more intense and bitter the bite. As a starting point for any chocolate bark, reach for semi-sweet or around 60% cocoa solids.

White chocolate is technically not chocolate. It's cocoa butter (the fat from the cacao bean) combined with loads of sugar, milk solids, and often pesky emulsifiers. To whip up white chocolate bark, choose the purest white chocolate you can find.

The Ingredients

All you need for crunchy, scrumptious chocolate bark is two ingredients: chocolate and your favorite mix-ins. Nutrient-dense nuts, seeds, and dried fruit add flavor, texture, protein, and fiber to your chocolate bark moment.

On Tempering

Most of the chocolate you buy at the grocery store is already in temper. This is a chocolatier's term, which among other characteristics, means the sugars in the chocolate are crystallized appropriately. So they will melt nicely, then set shiny and break with a lovely snap.

Only premium chocolate called couverture needs to be tempered with professional technique. Most, if not all, retail baking chocolate contains an emulsifier like soy lecithin. The lecithin acts as insurance against "blooming" by binding the cocoa solids and butter together. It also eliminates the need for classical tempering.

So while it's not necessary, when using grocery store chocolate I go through the motions anyway. It helps the melted chocolate arrive naturally at a temperature that spreads easily but not too quickly.

Cheat Tempering Method

You can certainly use a thermometer when melting chocolate at home. But as detailed above, classical tempering is not necessary for home pursuits. The most important element is to use a very dry bowl. As even a small drop of water will cause melted chocolate to seize, or harden.

If you do want to gauge the temperature of your finished, melted chocolate, around 90° F is the target for semi-sweet and dark varieties. To keep melted chocolate in this range, keep it on top of a damp kitchen towel on the counter. This also helps steady the bowl for stirring and mixing. If it cools off too much, place it back on the pot of gently simmering water for a few minutes.

The Steps

Here are the steps for tempered chocolate without a thermometer.

1. Chop the chocolate. Roughly chop any solid bar of chocolate into small, like-sized pieces. Skip this step if using chocolate chips.
2. Melt about two-thirds of the chocolate you plan to use. Fill a small pot with about an inch of water, and place it over medium heat on the stove. Place about two-thirds of the chopped chocolate in a heat-proof, completely dry bowl, and set it on top of the pot. Melt over low heat, and stir occasionally until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
3. Let the melted chocolate cool slightly. Cooling the melted, tempered chocolate a little will allow you to pour and spread it more easily. If it's too hot, the chocolate will spread and you'll end up with thin chocolate paper instead of chunky bark. I find five to ten minutes of cooling is plenty.
4. Stir in the remaining chocolate. Add the reserved chopped chocolate and whisk or stir with a spatula until the melted chocolate is completely smooth. If the chocolate still seems too hot and thin to spread into a typical chocolate bark thickness, simply cool longer off the heat.
5. Pour and spread the chocolate. On a silicone baking mat or a parchment or wax paper-lined baking pan, pour and spread the chocolate into a loose rectangle. No need for perfection, one of the beauties of chocolate bark is its imperfect shape. How thin or thick you spread the chocolate is up to you. I aim for bark that's about a quarter-inch thick, like a typical chocolate bar. If you like your garnishes dispersed throughout the bark, mix them in the melted chocolate before pouring and spreading.

French-Style Chocolate Bark

On this side of the pond, you will often find chocolate bark with garnishes mixed in. In France, they simply sprinkle the toppings, well, on top. I love this method because it gives you a chocolate confection that is both scrumptious to eat and a rainbow of beautiful colors to admire. After all, we first eat with our eyes!

With Kids

I especially enjoy making a French-style bark with little kids. After I melt, cool, and spread the chocolate, they go nuts. It will buy you at least ten minutes of peace and quiet. Fun toppings for kids can be chopped pretzels (we use gluten-free), white chocolate chips, and candied citrus peel or ginger.

On Cutting

At room temperature, chocolate bark and all its glorious flavor bits will take about an hour to two to set. For faster cooling, you can pop the pan in the refrigerator (sacrilege in professional circles, but hey, we're at home here). Wipe your knife with a damp cloth in between cuts for the smoothest edges.

I like cutting it first into small rectangles, then halving the small pieces into long, thin triangles. But your kitchen, you're the boss. Break it up with your hands, or bring the kids back in and let them have at it.

Making Shapes

I'm not one to get overly excited about Cupid's arrival on February 14th. But I do get excited about any excuse to eat chocolate. Or play with it. Or both. If you don't own any candy or confection molds, but do have a few cookie cutters lying around, you can create fun and festive chocolate bark.

To shape your bark with a cookie cutter, let it cool until almost hard, but still soft enough that you can press the cutters through with a little force. Carve out as many shapes as you like, but don't pop out the shaped chocolate bark until it is completely set.

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