Day 11 of 12: Chocolate Slabs and Chocolate Bark

While it’s all good spending money on gifts from the shops, usually the gifts that mean the most are the ones with the most thought behind them and sometimes this means making them by hand, whether that’s wrapping up a shoebox for Secret Santa or making a homemade Christmas card.

Edible gifts are always much cheaper to make by hand than buying them from supermarkets. And I have lots of fantastic recipe ideas to share with you, whether you are giving them to friends or family, a teacher or a work colleague, they are sure to appreciate the time and effort you’ve taken to make them something special.

We’ve all seen the slabs of chocolate in supermarkets and chocolate shops and whilst they are a fantastic gift for someone, it’s also incredibly easy (and cheaper) to make them yourself. Not only do they take just minutes to make, you can customise them to whoever you give them to, whether they are a fan of dark or white chocolate, nuts for nuts or crazy for dried fruit, this is a brilliant way of personalising a present.

Personally I think it is important to introduce different textures and colours to your slabs/bark; a pop of colour makes them attractive to look at and differing textures make it also enticing to eat. Consider using dried apricots or cranberries to help add colour (and different flavour profiles) and nuts or biscuits to add texture. You’ll notice that all of my recipes are for Chocolate Bark but actually Chocolate Slabs follow the exact same process, except you don’t break it up into pieces before gifting.

For all my recipes, I only give the weight of the chocolate I use, simply because it’s totally up to you how much of each ingredient you put on!

Sweet Bites Dark Chocolate Bark

I called this first bark Sweet Bites because every bite has a little burst of sweetness from the dried fruit which I soaked in tea the night before (sounds like a bit of an effort but the fruit plumps up and becomes really juicy!) as well as the marshmallows and the sprinkles.

You’ll notice that I am already following my texture/colour rule; the pink marshmallows are contrasting colour to the chocolate and the marshmallows and dried fruit have a chew which contrasts the snap of the dark chocolate.

Dried apricots, chopped

Sultanas

Dried cranberries

200g dark chocolate

Silver balls

Sequin sprinkles

Pink mini marshmallows

Place the dried fruit into a bowl with 1 teabag (just the kind you use to make a cup of tea). Pour over boiling water to cover the fruit by at least 5cm. Remove the teabag after 10 minutes and leave the fruit to soak overnight.

Melt the chocolate either in a bowl over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave on 20 second blasts, stirring after each 20 seconds until just melted, which is my preferred method. Leave the chocolate for 5 minutes to cool slightly before pouring out into a parchment lined traybake tin.

Smooth out the chocolate into a slab shape, trying to make it as even as possible. Draw a spoon up and down across the chocolate to create a wave pattern. Then add the toppings onto the chocolate, making sure that each ingredient is evenly distributed across the slab. Chill the slab for 45 minutes to allow the chocolate to set properly.

Make your chocolate slab into chocolate bark by breaking it up into pieces.

Christmas Pudding White Chocolate Bark

This festive take on chocolate bark combines a classic Christmas pudding with creamy white chocolate with bursts of sweet dried fruit and a mellow background note of chocolate cake crumbs. This really proves the versatility of chocolate bark, even leftover cake crumbs can be used as a topping.

Again I follow my rule about texture and colour; white chocolate is much easier to get contrasting colours; I used dried cranberries for a festive pop of red and the dark rich and sticky Christmas pudding stands out against the white chocolate. I didn’t soak the fruits this time since the apricots and cranberries were already quite plump.

200g white chocolate

Christmas pudding, cooked and cooled

Leftover chocolate cake crumbs

Dried apricots, chopped

Dried cranberries

Golden sultanas

Sequin sprinkles

Make your chocolate slab into chocolate bark by breaking it up into pieces.

Bourbon Popcorn Brittle Chocolate Bark

This bark is topped with sweet crunchy popcorn, small pieces of bourbon biscuits and peanut brittle chunks and finished with rainbow sprinkles to add a pop of colour. The slightly bitter dark chocolate contrasts the sweet toppings, making it very palatable.

180g dark chocolate

Sweet popcorn

Bourbon biscuits

Mr Toms bar

Rainbow sprinkles

Chop up the bourbon biscuits into small pieces, leaving some larger chunks as well. Do the same for the Mr Toms bar.

Make your chocolate slab into chocolate bark by breaking it up into pieces.

Make sure to check out the first 10 Days of Christmas on my blog too!

Day 1: Dairy Milk Caramel Cupcakes

Day 2: Melted Snowman Chocolate Chip Cookies

Day 3: Lidl’s Favorina Spiced Biscuit Spread Review

Day 4: White Chocolate and Cranberry Crunch Biscuits