chocolate bark

(Date: 6 Feb 2013. The 26th recipe in 2013)

The idea of making chocolate bars/barks is inspired from "How to make chocolate bars" by David Lebovitz. I also tried to follow his chocolate tempering tutorial to temper the chocolate before molding. Although the tempering was not quite successful, it's mainly because I didn't keep an close eye on the thermometer (and my thermometer seems inaccurate). I've used several of his recipes in the past, either from his website and his excellent book "Ready for Dessert". Most yield very satisfactory results. Hence I believe my failure in tempering the chocolate doesn't reflect the reliability of the original recipe/tutorial.

Anyway, the resulting chocolate barks are still very pretty. They may not possess the desirable property of tempered chocolates, but still absolutely gorgeous.

What I used?

(for 8 fruity chocolate hearts & 5 nutty chocolates medallions)

225g Green & Black's cooking chocolate (70% cocoa)

2 pieces of dried apricot

1 piece of dried figs

a handful of dried cranberries

18 pieces of whole almonds

8 pieces of macadamia

a handful of roasted hazelnut

(basically I just used whatever I had in my pantry)

What I did?

(part 1: tempering - not strictly required. see below for the reasons of tempering)

Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Put two-thirds into a clean, dry bowl set over a small pan of simmering water. / Poke in a thermometer & wait till the temperature reaches 47C. Meanwhile, gather and prepare other ingredients. Slice the dried fruits in desirable shape and size. / When the temperature reaches 47C, immediately remove the bowl from the heat to cool. Drop the remaining one-third of chocolate pieces in to act as "seeds" for the melted chocolate to form good beta crystals. Stir frequently while cooling as it can encourage good crystallization. / After the chocolate has reached 27C, heat the chocolate up again over a pan of simmering water. Remove immediately when it reaches 32C. Now the chocolate can be used to mold or dip.

(part 2: moulding chocolate barks)

Use a clean dry stainless steel soup spoon to spoon a layer of melted chocolate into the molds. / Rap them on the counter a few times to distribute the chocolate evenly & release any air bubbles. / Top with nuts, dried fruits or any ingredients that you wish & press them in slightly. / Immediately put the molds in the refrigerator until firm. It should only takes about 5 minutes for correctly tempered chocolate to firm up but slightly longer for non-tempered chocolate.

What I felt?

Temperature can rise a lot faster than expected. Mine overshot to 52C before I could remove it from heat. Then I made the same mistake again in the second part of reheating. And it overshot to 34C. It could be the main reason that my chocolate hadn't been successfully tempered. However it took me ages to wait for the chocolate temperature to come down from 50C to 27C (more than half an hour I think). Therefore I decided to call it a night without re-tempering it again.

But I am absolutely happy with how the chocolate barks look. I made two types of chocolate barks. One with dried fruits, another with nuts (mainly because my hubby does not like dried figs but I can't stand any dried fruit combo sans figs). I think they both look lovely and taste great. I do not own any shallow chocolate molds and don't want to spend money for that neither (at least not yet). Hence I used two silicone muffin molds. They work perfectly fine and I didn't experience any difficulty at all in removing the chocolates from molds.

How good was it? 7/10. Look good - not great because I couldn't successfully temper the chocolate so some (especially the oval nutty ones) show white streaks of blooming and they lack the attractive glossy shine. In terms of flavour, I think they taste great - tempering doesn't affect taste (as far as I know). As long as the fruit/nut combos go well, the chocolate bark should taste great.

How easy was it? 3/10. Tempering chocolate is difficult. I'd give 9/10 if one opts not to attempt tempering and just melt the chocolates over a pan of simmering water, or using microwave.

How economical was it? 5/10. It's a difficult question as it hugely depends on the quality/price of the chocolate and the other ingredients. Some nuts and dried fruits can be pricy. I paid £3.75 for 225g of Green & Black's organic dark chocolates. I used very little of nuts and dried fruits so it's difficult to estimate their costs but it shouldn't exceed 75 pence. Therefore the total costs I spend should not exceed £4.5.

Will I make this again? Yes. I think I will. In fact my hubby who doesn't have sweet tooth or any nerve to appreciate desserts has requested me to make it again so he can bring some to work.

Note to self? I should get a proper contact-less thermometer.

Additional info: Why should we temper the chocolate? (from David Lebovitz)
- To avoid fat (and sugar) bloom (the unappealing white streaks or blotches on the surface)
- To raise the melting temperature of finished chocolate so it doesn’t melt on contact with your fingers.
- To preserve the keeping quality of chocolate by stratifying the fat.
- To cool chocolate quickly.
- Tempered chocolate cools fast, within 5 minutes. Tempered chocolate will shrink slightly when cooled, which allows it to slip out of molds easily. (It means you can use metal molds)
- To give chocolate a glossy, shiny appearance, and a crisp, clean snap when you break it.