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CHOCOLATE BARK

List of Ingredients






Yields 8 cups

* 1 cup dried cherries or raisins or dried cranberries

* 1 cup minimarshmallows

* 2 cups shelled, preferably unsalted, nuts. Jacques likes to use a cup of hazelnuts and a cup of almonds, but you can use cashew pieces or peanuts or pistachios or mixed nuts

* ]4 cups bittersweet chocolate, measured then tempered (see accompanying item on tempering)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Spread the nuts evenly on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Toast for about 30 minutes until they are golden brown. You will be able to smell the nuts when they are ready. A good test is to break a nut in half and check to see if it is light brown on the inside. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on the baking sheet on a wire rack.

Place the dried fruit, marshmallows and toasted nuts in a large mixing bowl. Add the tempered chocolate and use a wooden spoon to mix until everything is thoroughly coated. Pour the chocolate mixture onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

Spread the mixture so that it is even.

Allow the bark to set until the chocolate has hardened. Break the bark into the desired-sized pieces and serve.

You can experiment with the recipe, , using whatever ingredients you have on hand that day. You can make it with any ingredient (all nuts, all fruits, etc.) and any type of chocolate. Just keep the proportions (4 cups of stuff to 4 cups of chocolate) relatively the same, and it should turn out delicious.

Bark can keep up to two weeks, at room temperature, in an airtight container.

Tempering:
To ensure that you'll have an end product that will remain shiny when stored at room temperature, you'll need to "temper" the chocolate before using.

The process is simply the careful melting of the chocolate (melts best between 104 and 113 degrees) and then bringing it back to the correct temperature (between 84 and 88 degrees).

One of the easiest methods is to use the microwave.

If you start with block chocolate, chop it into small pieces, or you can start with pre-made chips. Place the chocolate in a microwaveable bowl and place in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time on high power until the chocolate is melted. (The bowl has to be perfectly clean and have no water droplets in it, as water will make the chocolate "seize" or contract suddenly.)

Swirl the chocolate in the bowl between microwave blasts. Be very careful not to overheat the chocolate: It may not look as if it has completely melted, because it retains its shape. You may still see lumps in it, but these should melt from the retained heat. Now comes the wait for the chocolate to come back down to the correct temperature (a thermometer can help here, though it can be done without one). As the temperature drops, the chocolate will begin to set or recrystallize. Usually this starts at the edges of the bowl. As these crystals form, stir them into the chocolate in the center, which will lower the temperature of the center. Keep doing this until the chocolate is thicker and registers between 84 and 88 degrees.




Nutritional analysis per ¼ cup: 171 calories, 10 grams fat, 20 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams protein, 0 cholesterol, 6 milligrams sodium, 53 percent of calories from fat

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