This bark has bite

Being that I am seriously baking-averse, it becomes somewhat of a challenge for me to find recipes for sweets that I'll actually make. Don't get me wrong...I come across dessert recipes all the time that I flag or save, but the times I actually follow through and bake them are few and far between. So when I stumbled across this recipe whose only oven-action is to toast some nuts, I knew we had a promising future together! (It also doesn't hurt that it's not totally overloaded with fat and calories so that I can actually enjoy eating it rather than feeling pangs of guilt with every scrumptious bite.)

Cherry Almond Chocolate Bark (adapted from Cooking Light September 2009)

Ingredients:

8 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used 2 4-oz 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate baking bars)
1/3 cup almonds, toasted and chopped
1/3 cup dried cherries, chopped
3 tablespoons crystallized ginger, chopped

Preparation:

Here is the chocolate I used for this recipe but you can use what is available or sounds good. I wouldn't recommend using milk chocolate - you'll want to at least use semi-sweet. If you don't make this as soon as you get home from the grocery store, I recommend putting the chocolate out of sight so you don't devour it before getting to the recipe.


If you've never used crystallized ginger before, here's what mine looks like. It is in the Asian foods section of the international aisle at the supermarket. You certainly don't HAVE to have it for the recipe, but it adds a special something.

To get things going, put 1/3 cup of whole (unsalted or otherwise flavored) almonds into a 350 degree oven. Leave them in for about 10 minutes just so they get nice and toasty and the flavor enhances. Then, while the chocolate is still in the wrappers, break it into chunks with your hands. Open the packages into a microwave safe bowl.

And here's why I really like this recipe - you melt the chocolate in the microwave! Yahoo! Cook it at 20 second intervals for a total of 1-2 minutes - depending on how strong your microwave is - stirring it between each cooking interval.

Once the almonds are nice and toasty, remove them from the oven and coursely chop them along with the dried cherries and crystallized ginger.

Mix all the goodies into your melted chocolate.

Then pour the mixture onto a foil-lined sheet tray.

And stick the tray into the freezer for at least an hour. Once it has hardened, break it into several pieces and enjoy! I usually keep mine in the fridge in a ziploc bag for the few days (or day) before it's all eaten!

After making this the other day, I shared some with a friend who commented "huh, it's kind of messy". I had no clue what she was talking about. She thinks I've actually held on to the stuff long enough to let some melt before stuffing it in my mouth! Ha!