Easter Chocolate Bark

I had my little niece over this afternoon and we went 'barking mad', making up all sorts of chocolate bark concoctions.

These barks are childsplay to make and can be made to suit grown-up tastes or also can be made using any type of sweets and candy that kiddies love. I found that marshmallows went down a treat with the little one!!!!

There really is nothing to this recipe; simply melt the chocolate and sprinkle over the ingredients you fancy. We chose for this particular outing to do a kiddies version and a more sophisticated version.

Marshmallow & Candy Bark





Ingredients

• 30g of mini marshmallows
• 1 packet of Nestle Smarties
• 1 small packet of Cabury's Mini Eggs
• 1 Cabury's Crunchie bar, crushed.
• 250g of plain chocolate.

Method

1. Break up the chocolate and put in a heat proof bowl, which is over some simmering water. Allow to melt fully.
2. Get a baking tray and rub some oil dipped in kitchen towel.
3. Then line the tray with baking parchment and rub the parchment paper with some of the kitchen towel soaked in oil
4. Stir the marshmallows into the chocolate then pour the chocolate out over the tray evenly distributing it.
5. (This is where the kiddies come in) Scatter the chocolate with the desired candy treats.
6. Place the baking tray in the fridge for 1 hour to firm up, or if (like me) you are terribly impatient, place in the freezer for 20 minutes.
7. The idea of the bark is to look a bit rustic and messy, so cut shards in at uneven angles for that homemade look.
8. The chocolate bark will keep up to 3 days in an air tight container in the fridge; though I severely doubt they would last 3 hours.

Sweet Cranberry & Pistachio White Chocolate Bark

This more sophisticated bark is more for the adult audience and would be ideal to serve to guests with coffee at the end of a dinner party. The method is the same as outlined above, just substitute the white chocolate for the dark chocolate and omit the marshmallows and candies and instead use 1/2 cup of sweet dried cranberries and 1/2 cup of peeled chopped pistachio nuts.

You can experiment with whatever flavours you wish, using perhaps mint chocolate instead of plain chocolate; using cut up pieces of your favourite chocolate bars, any dried fruits or you could just go for full on nutty mode with nothing but nuts. The combinations and choices are endless.