Cranberry Mint Chocolate Bark

Gifting chocolate is always an easy choice - top this bark with anything your giftee will love the most - quadruple this batch and divide this up into 4 quadrants and create four different options! This chocolate bark is flavored with peppermint and a hint of orange from the olive oil - delectable and full of holiday spirit!

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Ingredients

8 oz Dark chocolate finely chopped
¼ cup Crushed candy canes or peppermints
½ tsp Peppermint extract
⅓ cup Dried cranberries
2 tbsp Mint Olive Oil or Blood Orange Olive Oil
2 oz White chocolate finely chopped

Instructions

Step 1 - Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Fill a small saucepan with ½ cup water and place a heatproof bowl over saucepan, ensuring the bottom does not touch the water. Add chocolate to the bowl and heat pot over medium low heat. Gently stir chocolate as it melts, removing bowl from heat before all pieces are completely melted, about 3/4 of the way through melting. Stir to continue melting chocolate, then stir in olive oil until completely blended in. Stir in peppermint extract, stirring again until completely blended in.
Step 2 - While mixing together dark chocolate mixture, add white chocolate to a clean bowl and repeat melting process over double boiler, adding more water if necessary, still ensuring bottom of the bowl does not touch surface of water. Remove from heat just before completely melted then stir hard to completely smooth chocolate.Step 3 - Pour chocolate onto parchment paper, tipping sheet to spread out evenly, no thinner than ½? thick. Sprinkle on cranberries and crushed candy canes evenly over melted dark chocolate then Drizzle over top melted white chocolate. Alternatively, before sprinkling candy canes and cranberries, drop small spoonfuls of melted white chocolate onto dark chocolate, and drag a knife through both chocolates to mix together and marble. Allow bark to set until firm in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Notes

Chocolate scorches quite easily and will impart an aftertaste and leave your chocolate less than at it's creamy goodness. This also causes the cocoa butter fats to separate and causes your chocolate to 'bloom' - that whitish looking stuff that you may see on a bar of chocolate that has melted and then hardened again. Removing melting chocolate from the heat before it's fully melted allows it to have enough time to melt evenly while cooling down before it scorches. This is tempering chocolate, which gives it a glossy finish and nice snap when it's bitten.