Easy Halloween Bark
I recently came across Food Network Magazine's article about Mix-and-Match Chocolate Bark and was inspired to whip up something spooky for Halloween. The ingredients were simple, the directions were easy and the result was mouthwatering brilliance.
I decided to adapt the chocolate bark for the fall season and Halloween. I chose a dark-chocolate cookie with orange cream filling. You could use candy corn, orange marshmallows, orange-colored candy melts or any other Halloween-inspired treat.
15 Halloween-themed cookies (like Oreos), chopping each cookie into four pieces
Line a baking sheet with parchment.
Place chocolate in a heat-safe bowl. Bring a sauce pan with 1-2 inches of water to a rolling boil. Place the bowl of chocolate on top of the saucepan to create a double boiler. With a heat-safe spatula, gently stir the chocolate until it's mostly melted. Add in chopped cookies and stir until coated.
Pour chocolate onto prepared baking sheet and spread out until it's about 1/4-inch thick. If you have any cookies left over, you can sprinkle pieces over the top of the bark. Let bark harden completely at room temperature for about an hour. You can also place the sheet in the fridge or freezer to expedite the hardening process.
To elevate this Halloween treat, make your favorite chocolate cake recipe or try Ina's five-star Chocolate Cake recipe.
After the cake has cooled and you've frosted the cake (with coordinating frosting), decorate the cake with the Halloween Bark.
Chop bark into long strips and trim off any edges if you want the bark to create a point at the top.
Place around base of freshly frosted cake. Chill until ready to serve.
If you want to make the bark to enjoy on its own, you can substitute milk chocolate for semi-sweet. In this recipe specifically, the semi-sweet chocolate is a nice complement to the rich and sweet chocolate cake and frosting.
Amanda is a wife, mom, baker and creative force behind iambaker.net . She homeschools her four children, lives in the land of 10,000 lakes and is self-appointed president of the Committee to Get Ina Garten on Twitter. (Amanda tweets at @iambakertweets)