If you're looking for a low-key, high-dazzle sweet that's perfect to put on a dessert board or give as a Holiday gift (or eat as a midnight snack), try this 3-ingredient Chocolate Bark with Nuts. The recipe is so fast and easy, I had to include two versions: Dark Chocolate Bark with Sea Salt and Pistachios, and Matcha White Chocolate Bark with Nuts.
I don't eat a lot of desserts simply because I outgrew a pretty intense sweet tooth right after high school. But I love dark chocolate for other reasons. The health benefits are obvious and don't need to be repeated, but I do love that this Chocolate Bark is a perfect opportunity to add some plant-based omega-3s in the form of nuts to your diet. The white chocolate bark version is a good way to add anti-oxidant benefits of green tea matcha!
What You Need for Chocolate Bark with Nuts
This recipe only has three ingredients! You literally need only what's in the name of the recipe:
- chocolate (dark chocolate if you prefer)
- roasted salted and shelled nuts
- flaky sea salt
The chocolate barks are so pretty and luxurious with their glossy base studded with nuts, no one will suspect you threw them together in just a few minutes, no exaggeration. This dark chocolate bark with nuts requires max 10 minutes because you melt the chocolate in the microwave oven. You can use any kind of nuts that are roasted, salted, and already shelled. I love pistachios during the Holidays because they're a little bit of luxury, and the green color is so striking.
Chocolate Bark with Nuts Recipe Notes
- CHOCOLATE. Use the highest quality chocolate you can find. I prefer using chocolate in bar format, but chocolate chips, work well, too. I used Valrhona for the dark chocolate for the bark in these photos, sold in bulk bar format (by the pound) at a specialty culinary/gourmet retailer in Los Angeles.
- CACAO %. You can use any % cacao dark chocolate your taste can handle, but I stay between 60% and 70% for both the flavor and the health benefits. Any cacao percentage lower percentage has too much sugar and is too sweet for my taste, and any higher percentage is hard to melt and generally a little toooo bitter for other people's tastes! You don't get any of the anti-inflammatory benefits if you don't eat it!
- MELTING TECHNIQUE. Of course you can melt the chocolate in a double-boiler setup, you culinary candy-making genius, you! I use a microwave oven because I'm afraid of double-boilers.
- NUTS. I used pre-shelled, roasted salted pistachios, which are ideal for this because they are roasted, salted, and HAVE NO SHELLS. They are available in most grocery stores. In my local grocery store, pistachios are in the produce section.
- NUTS PREP. You can take a little bit of time to peel off the outer papery skin from some of the pistachios to show off the bright green color inside. This is purely for aesthetics, and a great job for little kids with their tiny hands. You can also do this for other nuts that have the inner skin like almonds or walnuts just for texture.
Chocolate Bark with Nuts: Variations
For a different twist, decrease the amount of nuts sprinkled on top by half, and add ½ cup of any of the following:
- dried cranberries
- goji berries
- dried white mulberries
- crystallized ginger
- cacao nibs
- try freeze-dried berries like raspberries or strawberries, which will render their dried berry powder and make for pretty designs on the bark.
A variation on the Chocolate Bark Recipe that warrants its own full recipe is marbled White Chocolate Bark with Matcha, which I've also included below.
Dark Chocolate Bark with Pistachios and Sea Salt Recipe
Ingredients
- 16 ounces high quality dark chocolate at least 60% cacao
- 2 cups pistachios shelled, roasted, and salted, divided
- flaky or coarse sea salt for sprinkling on top like Maldon
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl in 30-second intervals in a microwave oven, stirring between each interval. Stop microwaving once 80% of the chocolate is melted. Stir until all of the chocolate is melted. My microwave oven melted the dark chocolate in 2:30 minutes.
- Stir half the chopped pistachios (1 cup) into the melted dark chocolate.
- Pour melted dark chocolate with pistachios on parchment-lined baking sheet and spread into an even layer about ⅛" thick, shaping sides into a rectangle if you can. Scatter remaining 1 cup of pistachios evenly over the chocolate. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Let chocolate cool completely, then break or cut into pieces.
- Pistachio Sea Salted Dark Chocolate Bark will keep for about a week stored in a cool place in an airtight container between layers of parchment. Do not refrigerate.
Matcha White Chocolate Bark with Nuts Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 ounces high quality dark chocolate at least 60% cacao
- 2 cups Pistachios Roasted & Salted roughly chopped
- 8 ounces high quality white chocolate
- 1 tablespoon matcha powder
- optional: flaky sea salt for garnish
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Melt the dark chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl in 30-second intervals in a microwave oven, stirring between each interval. Stop microwaving once 80% of the dark chocolate is melted. Stir until all of the dark chocolate is melted. My microwave oven melted the dark chocolate in 2:30 minutes.
- Stir half the chopped pistachios (1 cup) into the melted dark chocolate.
- Spread melted dark chocolate with pistachios on parchment-lined baking sheet in an even layer about ⅛" thick, shaping sides into a rectangle if you can.
- Divide the white chocolate into two microwave safe bowls. Melt white chocolate in both bowls in the same way as the dark chocolate, in 30-second intervals in a microwave oven, stirring between each interval. Stop microwaving once 80% of the white chocolate is melted. Stir until all of the white chocolate is melted. My microwave oven melted the white chocolate in 2:00 minutes (four 30-second intervals).
- Sift the matcha powder into one of the bowls of melted white chocolate, then stir well until the white chocolate is a uniform green color.
- Alternately drop large spoonfuls of the melted white chocolate and matcha chocolate in a random pattern over the dark chocolate. Using a toothpick, and without touching too much of the dark chocolate underneath, lightly swirl the white and matcha chocolates into a marble pattern. Scatter the remaining pistachios on top, and lightly press into the chocolate. Sprinkle with flaky seat salt if using.
- Let chocolate cool completely for about 2 hours at room temperature (or about a half hour if you can fit your baking sheet into the refrigerator). Gently break or cut into pieces.
- Pistachio Matcha Dark Chocolate Bark will keep for about a week stored in a cool place in an airtight container between layers of parchment. Do not refrigerate.
Matcha White Chocolate Bark with Nuts Recipe Notes
- MATCHA. Matcha is a green tea powder that varies widely in taste, texture, and color. For chocolate bark, the differences in taste among matcha powders will not be as noticeable, but color will. Generally, "ceremonial grade" matcha is the brightest green and will create the most vibrant bark. However, it's more expensive. Culinary grade matcha is totally fine; the green will just be slightly less verdant.
- CHOCOLATE. Use the highest quality chocolates you can find. I prefer chocolate in bar format, but chocolate chips both dark and white, work well, too. I used Valrhona for both the dark chocolate and white chocolate for the bark in these photos, in bulk car format (by the pound) available at a specialty culinary/gourmet retailer in Los Angeles.
- CHOCOLATE CACAO %. Because white chocolate is usually sweet, a dark chocolate with higher cacao content (>70%) will better balance since it will be more bitter. Say that tongue twister five times fast.
- MELTING TECHNIQUE. Of course you can melt the chocolate in a double-boiler setup, you culinary candy-making genius, you! I use a microwave oven because I'm afraid of double-boilers.
- OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS: For a different twist, decrease the amount of pistachios sprinkled on top to half, and add ½ cup of dried or freeze-dried fruit. Chopped crystallized ginger, chopped candied lemon peel, freeze-dried raspberries, and dried rose petals all work particularly well with the pistachios and matcha.
This post originally sponsored by Wonderful Pistachios, but has been updated with additional recipe notes and information. Any opinions are my own.Thank you for supporting the brands that keep The Delicious Life dating and eating.
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