Pat and I don’t make a big deal of Valentines Day, maybe a heart shaped pizza but that’s about it. I thought it would be fun this year to make him some homemade chocolates. With little time and zero patience for tempering chocolate, I decided to go the route of rustic chocolate bark rather than fussy candies. If you can melt a bag of chocolate chips, you can do this.
Let’s talk about melting chocolate, shall we? Chocolate is a fickle creature with a low melting point that seizes up if it gets too warm. Once scorched, chocolate is lost forever. While the microwave definitely works, I prefer to make a bain-marie (water bath or double boiler) out of a pot of barely simmering water with a heat-proof bowl atop. The steam from the hot water warms the bowl providing gentle and even heat to melt the delicate chocolate.
The beauty of chocolate bark is that anything goes. I decided to up the flavor and texture factor here with two different versions, a strawberry cream and a peanut butter crunch. Top it with cereal, crushed potato chips, pretzels, nuts, dried fruit, sprinkles, flaky salt, or whatever you have in your pantry. This is a great project to make with your kids too. Most importantly, have fun with it!
Mise en Place – Peanut butter crunch
- Sheet pan lined with waxed paper
- 1 bag high quality semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 bag high quality white chocolate chips
- 5 Tablespoons peanut powder
- Valentine M&M’s
- about 1/2 cup Chopped nuts (I used peanuts & almonds)
- About 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt
Mise en Place – Strawberry cream
- Sheet pan lined with waxed paper
- 1 bag high quality milk chocolate chips
- 1 bag high quality white chocolate chips
- 4 tablespoons strawberry powder (I bough freeze dried berries and spun them in the food processor)
- Reserve some of the freeze dried strawberries to crumble and use as a topping
- Valentine M&M’s
- about 1/4 cup crispy rice cereal
- About 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt
Directions
- Line the sheet pan with waxed paper
- pour the white chocolate chips into a heat proof bowl and then pour the dark/milk chocolate chips into a separate heat proof bowl.
- fill two sauce pans with about 1 – 2 inches of water each and bring to a boil.
- Turn off the heat and place the bowls of chips on to each pot of water. Stir occasionally until melted.
- To the white chocolate add either the peanut powder or strawberry powder (depending which version you’re making) and stir to combine.
- Lift the bowl of dark/milk chocolate off of the bain-marie and wipe the bottom of the bowl clean to prevent water from dripping onto the pan of chocolate.
- Pour the dark/milk chocolate onto the wax paper lined pan, and spread with an offset spatula.
- Lift the bowl of white chocolate off the bain-marie and wipe the bottom of the bowl clean to prevent water from dripping onto the pan of chocolate.
- Gently spread the white chocolate creating a marble-like mixture with the dark/milk chocolate. Avoid over mixing as you want to see streaks of both types of chocolate.
- For the peanut butter version, top with the nuts, sea salt, and M&M’s
- For the Strawberry version top with crushed dried strawberries, crispy rice, sea salt and M&M’s
- Freeze until set.
- Break into pieces and enjoy!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
