Becoming Willy Wonka

Today was the day my oldest nephew turned 19 and made me feel really old. Today was also the day I tried making chocolate bark for the first time. Right now, you're probably thinking 'What on earth is chocolate bark?'. Well this is another thing that Pinterest has taught me. I first came across bark when I repinned a photo (below) of some that had been shared by a friend. 

Photo from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

So today I set about making this delicious looking treat as a present for my nephew's birthday. Unfortunately the bark in the photo above was made with limited edition M&Ms only available in America. After searching the net for other ideas, I decided I'd invent my own combinations. 

Basically, bark is melted chocolate spread across baking paper and topped with whatever you choose. This can be other chocolates, sweets, dried fruits or nuts. You then put it in the fridge for an hour and then break or slice into pieces. Mine has turned out a bit thicker than the above as I wasn't entirely sure how much chocolate to use for each one. 

1) White chocolate, strawberry flavour buttons & Coco pops

 Tesco have just started stocking these strawberry buttons made by Silver Spoon. 

I started by melting white chocolate, and once that was set I poured the melted strawberry buttons over the top. 

I then topped this with Coco Pops 

2) Cookies & Cream 

For this one I melted white chocolate, stirred in broken up Oreo cookies, spread into the tin and then topped with more broken up Oreo cookies. 

3) M&Ms 

This one is the one I could improve on. For this I melted milk chocolate and topped with M&Ms. In hindsight I feel it would have worked better if I'd stirred the M&Ms in rather than using them as a topping. 

4) Swirled

To make this I melted milk chocolate and immediately topped it with melted white chocolate and then swirled the 2 chocolates together. I then topped with Galaxy caramel bites. 

These were really simple to make and have loads of topping options. I will be definitely be making these again. Thank you Pinterest.