Tania McCartney Blog: chocolate bark

Fancy avoiding the gift-giving mountain? Why not scale a chocolate mountain instead?

Every year, I spend days on the gingerbread production line, pumping out intricately-decorated houses and people for friends and family to enjoy. As a large slice of my brain is currently tied up with end-of-school-stuff, two books, our upcoming trip and oh - a little thing called Christmas - I've decided to downscale a little, without compromising deliciousness in the least bit.

Enter chocolate bark. Traditionally strewn with candy cane shards, I've take a different tack, with a variety of festive flavours for both kids and adults.

Above you will see a gingersnap, cranberry and sanding sugar peak - and it's incredibly easy to make.

For all flavours, simply melt your desired quantity of chocolate. Each slab I made contained around 250g Cadbury Dairy Milk. I melt my chocolate in the microwave on half power, but you may have a different method. If heating in the microwave, be sure to remove from the heat well before the chocolate is liquid, then stir until remaining lumps have dissolved. Overheating chocolate will make it seize.

turkish delight, cashew, cachous

Spread the chocolate on trays lined with baking paper. Using an offset spatula, smooth the surface until around 3mm - 5mm thick.

Scatter your chocolate with prepared ingredients. Press down gently with your hands so ingredients sink into the chocolate. Cover loosely with cling film and refrigerate until firm.

Snap into shards and store in containers in the fridge until needed.

tip.
Use the best quality everything. If you use slabs of cheap chocolate from the $2 shop and shoddy additions, it will really taste quite revolting. Use great chocolate and fresh, quality ingredients and you'll still save a fortune on Christmas presents and absolutely delight neighbours, teachers, friends.

To put together packaging, print the template {below} to your desired size. Print onto card and cut out. Score along dotted lines and fold up edges.

Take your chocolate shards {above we have crystallised ginger, sanding sugar, chocolate stars and cracked black pepper} and stand it in the centre of your card. Bring cellophane up and around the card to hold it in place, tying with string.