Marbled with good quality dark and white chocolate, homemade bark looks impressively like a chocolate masterpiece – but trust me, it‘s super simple to make. The beauty of making your own chocolate bark is that you can get creative with your topping choices. Each mouthful is studded with an explosion of flavour, texture and colour.

I like to make my slabs quite thin, approx. 3mm. 600g of chocolate will cover a large baking sheet (or 2 smaller trays). For my recipe I use sharp and sticky candied orange, toasted almonds, pistachios and dried raspberries (for a pop of magenta). But stem ginger is also a winner for a fiery hit, or with a few dried chilli flakes. A very fine sprinkle of sea salt will add dimension and enhance the chocolate flavour.

It’s best to get organised with your topping before you melt the chocolate so you are ready to go once it is melted.

Ingredients

400g (at least 80% cocoa solids)
200g good quality milk chocolate
Pistachios
Almonds (roughly chopped)
Candied orange (or stem ginger if you like)
2 tbsp. freeze-dried raspberries
Pinch sea salt

Method

1. Melt the dark and white chocolate in separate bowls over pans of gently simmering water (don’t let the water bubble), stirring frequently. Be sure no stray water gets into the melting chocolate, or it will seize and become grainy.

2. Take a large sheet of baking parchment (about 45 x 30cm) and lay it onto a chopping board or baking sheet or use 2 smaller sheets.

3. Drop large spoonfuls of the melted dark chocolate onto the paper, spreading with a spatula until you have a large rectangle of mostly even thickness.

4. Drizzle over the white chocolate and create a swirled pattern by dragging a cocktail stick back and forth across the chocolate.

5. Scatter toppings with abandon—the more organic looking the better.

6. Leave until firm, resist touching as you will leave unattractive fingerprints in the chocolate! Once set firm, peel off parchment and break bark into shards or cut into smaller slabs.