Chocolate Bark

Have you ever had chocolate bark? Well it doesn’t take much to make it and it’s delicious (like any other candy would be). It’s good around the holidays because its something you can bring to a party that has variety without taking up your entire day to make it. Simple. Mine didn’t come out quite how I wanted it to because I got distracted from the microwave and burnt my first batch of chips (a sin) and only had a few chips to work with. First tip: DON’T BURN THE CHOCOLATE! You want to find a good quality chocolate, such as Ghirardelli, in the form of chocolate chips (which I used) or even a chocolate bar (break in pieces for melting). You can do a variety of different chocolate such as dark, milk or white — I just chose white chocolate here. Also decide what you want to be in the bark, nuts and dried fruit work the best or even bits of pretzel could work (I used dried cranberries, almonds, and nutella).  All you have to do is melt the chocolate, either over stove top or microwave (leave it in for 20-30 secs at a time, stir after each). Once melted and creamy enough to spread, take a cookie sheet with wax paper and spread it to your desired thickness. Then sprinkle your ingredients over the top of the chocolate (press down on the bits if necessary to ensure they stay in the chocolate). If you wanted the bark to be really thick, you could add an additional layer of chocolate over the toppings. Then stick the tray in the refrigerator until the chocolate is hard again and able to be broken into pieces.