Dark and white chocolate are each spread across half the baking sheet and topped separately. The white chocolate gets dried cherries, apricots, pistachios, and poppy seeds; the dark gets dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, and toasted coconut. The toppings are chosen as much for color as for flavor, which is what gives the finished bark its visual character. There are no quantities listed for the toppings, because the amount is entirely a matter of how covered you want each half to look.

The chocolate is spread thin, which is intentional — thin chocolate with a generous scatter of toppings gives you a better ratio of texture to chocolate in every piece than a thick slab would. Both chocolates set together on the same sheet and get broken or cut into irregular pieces after about twelve hours. A good food gift that requires nothing more than a tin or a piece of cellophane to finish.

Pieces of only dark chocolate bark with color toppings

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Key Ingredients in This Recipe

You’ll find the complete list of ingredients and exact quantities in the recipe below.

White chocolate
Dark chocolate
Dried cranberries
Dried cherries
Dried apricots
Toasted coconut
Pumpkin seeds
Pine nuts
Poppy seeds
Pistachio nuts

How to Make Dark & White Chocolate Bark

OK, first quality chocolate, as with everything in cooking, quality is key. I know quality is very subjective and may depend on what you’re making. Buy the best chocolate you can afford. For this bark I selected white chocolate (not really chocolate in the true sense of the word, because it doesn’t contain cocoa powder) and dark chocolate. Coming from a country that makes chocolate, I love the really dark chocolate and went for the darkest I could find.

Step 1 – Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut 2/3 of your chocolate in small pieces and melt that in the microwave or au-bain-marie or a double broiler (in a bowl in a saucepan with boiling water). I prefer the microwave, because it’s much faster, less risk of burning my fingers and no water drops landing in the chocolate. Melt the chocolate and remove the bowl from the heat and stir to cool it slightly.

The temperature of the white chocolate should be max. 100-110°F and the temperature of the dark chocolate max. 115-120°F, milk chocolate is in the middle. Now you can temper the chocolate if you want to, but it’s not a necessity. Especially for this bark, you may not even see it. Tempering chocolate is a process that will give your bark a smooth and glossy look and the chocolate will break instead of bend.

How to temper. Once your chocolate has reached the required temperature, gradually add in the remaining chocolate to bring the temperature down, stirring vigorously and constantly. Stir until the temperature drops to 85°F for white and 90°F for dark chocolate. Voila – You have tempered chocolate.

Pour the white chocolate on one side of your baking sheet and spread it out, using max. half of your baking sheet. The other half is reserved for the dark chocolate.

Baking sheet with half dark and half white chocolate sprinkled with colorful toppings, like seeds, dried fruits poppy seeds etc.

I spread the chocolate thin, because that’s the way I like it. Thin chocolate with loads of toppings is a nice nibble. Now it is time for topping, sprinkles. Use whatever comes to mind. I opted dried apricots and cherries, pistachios, and poppy seed for the white chocolate and dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, and toasted coconut for the dark chocolate. In the recipe I have no quantities or weight for the topping, as it is up to you how much you want to sprinkle on top of the chocolates.

Wooden plate with only white chocolate and colorful toppings

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