Snazzy Mocha Bark

When my mom came down for Thanksgiving she brought a little treat to share with us. It was an espresso bark. (Here is where I wish I could tell you who made it and give a link for where to get it, but, alas we ate it all. I'll find out and add it at the bottom, but after you get the recipe I'm going to give you here you won't need to buy it anymore anyways.) I loved how pretty it was. The dark chocolate was marbled with the white chocolate and the white chocolate had ground espresso in it. Besides being pretty it also tasted really good. It was like eating one of those overpriced mochas that you get at Fourbucks.

I love chocolate barks. My first time eating one was when I worked at Williams-Sonoma many many years ago. It was their peppermint bark. I couldn't help thinking when I tasted it that I could probably make it myself. It's just melted chocolate after all, right? I went home, gave it a whirl, and voila, peppermint bark. So it should come as no surprise that when I tasted the espresso bark that my mom had brought down I was thinking the same thing. The espresso bark was easy enough to replicate but I thought I might be able to spruce it up a little by introducing some chocolate covered espresso beans.

Chocolate barks are cool for several reasons:

1. They taste really good (but only if you like chocolate)
2. They are easy to make
3. They look pretty
4. You can play with the flavors
5. They taste good (I know I already said that but it bears repeating)

Here's a little tip when it comes to melting chocolate: it needs to be fresh. Don't use that bag/bar that has been sitting in the back of the cupboard for longer than you want to admit. When you use that chocolate it won't melt into anything smooth or creamy, instead it will burn. At least that's what happened to the white chocolate that I used. I tried melting it and it acted more like chocolate does when it seizes, then it burnt. Let me tell you that burnt white chocolate is not a smell you want to fill your kitchen with.

My husband came to the rescue and ran out to the store for some more white chocolate (Thank you honey). Then I ran into a second problem. This time the chocolate melted just fine (yeah!), but then I had to go and mess with it. I wanted it to really taste like coffee and I had this bottle of coffee extract that I wanted to play with. I went to add a little bit into the white chocolate, and well, let's just say that a little bit more than a little bit went into the chocolate and it seized. I know I said making chocolate bark is easy, and it is, you see I was really just trying to show what all could go wrong so you don't have to make all these mistakes. I'm so nice and thoughtful, aren't I??

Fast forward to the next day. The dark chocolate with the chopped up chocolate covered espresso beans was still waiting patiently in the refrigerator for me to get my act together. Hey, after two failed attempts I wanted to reconsider my plan of attack. I opted to stick closer to the espresso bark I was trying to recreate. The marbled technique had gone out the window as soon as I put the dark chocolate in the refrigerator to chill, but I had another idea, which I'll get to in a minute. After another trip to the grocery store for some more white chocolate (this is now the most expensive chocolate bark I've ever made) I set to work again. I melted the white chocolate (no problems there). This time I had decided to go with finely ground coffee mixed with the white chocolate like the original. I really don't know what went wrong with the coffee extract and I wasn't willing to make another trip to the grocery store if it made my chocolate seize up again. Then I got smart, instead of just dumping the ground up coffee into all of the melted white chocolate, I took a small amount of melted chocolate out and put it into a separate bowl and mixed it in there. Like a test batch. You see I can still learn from my mistakes. Of course it didn't matter because the ground coffee didn't make the white chocolate seize at all. But the point was that I was prepared, I had thought it through. The white chocolate looked like cookies and cream.

Once I knew I had the white chocolate part straightened out I spread it on top of the dark chocolate.

Now back to the aforementioned idea I had to make this bark look pretty since the marbled idea wasn't going to be happening. There is a technique I've seen used mainly on the tops of cakes, cupcakes and cookies that that gives the finished product a ...I honestly don't know what you call it..I'll go with marbled-esque look. It's really easy to do considering how elegant the finished product comes out looking. My daughter Naiya was doing it to her gingerbread cookies this year and she's 11, so that will either go to show you how easy it is to do, or make you feel really inept when yours doesn't work. We'll keep our fingers crossed for the "it's really easy to do" one. But look I took pictures to help out.

All you do is pipe lines of dark chocolate across the melted white chocolate. Then you take a toothpick or wooden skewer and drag it through the melted chocolte, first in one direction, and then in the other. OK so maybe marble-esque isn't a very good description, the point is that it looks all kinds of snazzy, and snazzy is fun. Then back into the fridge to let it all harden completely. Done and done.

So why should you make this? Here are a few reasons:

1. It doesn't take long to do as long as you learn from other people's (who will remain nameless) mistakes.
2. It's snazzy so people will be all like, "Wow! You made this?! It's so snazzy." And it's possible that a compliment like that will make you smile.
3. It's chocolate and coffee. Nuff said.
4. It's a chocolate bark (for reasons why you should like chocolate bark see the list at the beginning of this post).

Mocha Bark

(makes about 2 lbs. of candy)

Ingredients:

• 18 oz. of dark chocolate; divided
• 1/2 cup of chocolate covered espresso beans; roughly chopped
• 12 oz. of white chocolate
• 1 tablespoon of finely ground coffee or espresso

Directions:

1. Line a cookie sheet (at least a 10 x 14) with aluminum foil. Set aside.
2. Melt or temper 12 oz. of the dark chocolate. If you are using bars of chocolate make sure they are cut into small uniform pieces so they melt evenly. You can melt the chocolate in a double boiler of in the microwave. If you are using the microwave melt it in short intervals (30 seconds at a time), stirring in between to eliminate hot pockets and get the chocolate to melt evenly. Stir in the chopped chocolate covered espresso beans. Spread the chocolate onto the cookie sheet. You want the chocolate to be really thin, about an 1/8 of an inch. Remember you are going to be layering chocolate and you still need to be able to break it up at the end. Once the dark chocolate is spread out on the cookie sheet set it in the refrigerator to let it harden completely (at least one hour, two is better).
3. Once the dark chocolate is hardened, melt or temper the white chocolate in the same fashion as you did for the dark chocolate. Once melted stir in 1 tablespoon of finely ground coffee or espresso. Set aside.
4. Melt the remaining 6 oz. of dark chocolate. Once melted transfer the chocolate to a piping bag. Alternatively you can put it in a zip lock bag, just make sure you get as much air out as possible. If you used a zip lock bag you will need to cut a very small end off of one of the corners to turn it into a make-shift piping bag. Set aside.
5. Spread the white chocolate over the hardened dark chocolate. Then, while the white chocolate is still wet, pipe lines of dark chocolate across the white chocolate leaving about a one inch space in between lines. Using wooden skewer drag lines through the chocolate alternating directions for every line. Once finished put the chocolate bark back into the refrigerator to harden completely. I waited 3-4 hours to make sure it was really set.
6. Once the chocolate is completely hardened break it into serving size pieces. I keep mine in the refrigerator to store.

*Get a printable version of this recipe here.*

 Straight up snazzy

Note: The espresso bark that my mom brought down is from Zoe's Chocolate Co. It's part of their bar collection. She also brought down one of their hazelnut bars which was equally fabulous.