I have not really made too many confectionary items on the blog, and I want to try to change that. I find that most people really do love their baked goods, but they love their candy even more. Recently, I had made an item called Heavenly Stones that I learned about from my friend Hanneke – a Facebook friend who writes a great little blog called The Duchess Cooks. After making these heavenly stones and then sharing them with friends, those that tried them simply loved them. It was not long after that my mind started wandering to other possibilities for the same chocolaty medium.
I have always been a lover of confections like rocky road and s’mores – the type of confections that keep your mouth wondering if the next bite is going to be soft and gooey or crisp and crunchy. I quickly realized that a combination of the two would only enhance and not detract from the eating experience. I loved the idea of combining it all together and the extra bonus of not having to temper the chocolate made it even easier.
Now that I knew what chocolaty medium I was going to use, I quickly set out to find the right quantities of the other ingredients I wanted to use. My goal was to include roasted almonds, marshmallows and honey graham wafers. The key is to use a good quality bittersweet chocolate because it offsets the sweetness from the other ingredients and my choice here is always the Ghirardelli bittersweet chips. It has the perfect sweetness and creaminess that this confection really needs. Whether you make this as a treat to keep around the house or want to add it to sacks of goodies to give away as party favors or make as gifts for the holidays, these delicious little confections will surely be a hit with everyone who is lucky enough to enjoy them.
S’mores Bark
5 cups of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips
4 ounces of cocoa butter (about 8 tablespoons of chopped cocoa butter)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 ½ cups mini marshmallows
1 cup roasted almonds, coarsely chopped
1 sleeve of Honey Maid Graham Crackers (about 9 nine wafers, coarsely broken into pieces)
Add the cocoa butter to a microwave safe container and heat it gently in the microwave until it melts completely. Add I cup of chocolate at a time and reheat in the microwave until all of the chocolate has melted. Add all of the ingredients (chopped roasted almonds, marshmallows and small to medium pieces of graham crackers) to a large bowl and then pour over the melted chocolate and fold it all together.
Pour this into a paper (or plastic lined) cake pan or a square or rectangular shaped silicone cake mold.
Cover and place this in the refrigerator for a few hours to set, and then remove from the refrigerator and allow it to sit at room temperature overnight before cutting into pieces. Either cut into even (or uneven) size chunks of bark. Store your treats in a lidded container in a cool place.
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