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DIY Chocolate Bark with Dried Berries

READY IN LESS THAN AN HOUR

Cocoa butter — it's an ingredient that you may associate with cooking or more specifically with chocolate.

But cocoa butter isn't just used to make chocolate, or your favourite hot chocolate drink — did you know that cocoa butter is also commonly used in natural skin care products?

Here at Eorth we use natural cocoa butter in our Orange Exfoliator Natural Soap Bar, we use it in our natural lip balms, and our popular zero waste shampoo bars. As you can see, cocoa butter is a versatile product that's great for not only putting in your body but it's also great for moisturising both the hair and skin!

Although cocoa butter is commonly produced in African nations, cocoa beans are grown and processed right here in Australia. In fact Far North Queensland is home to one of a few of Australia's organic cocoa plantations.

As the festive season draws near, we thought it would be the perfect time to share a simple recipe that contains cocoa butter, which is great for your skin — and your taste buds too!

This delicious chocolate treat can be whipped up very quickly, you'll just need to wait for it to cool and harden in the fridge before you can sink your teeth into the natural goodness of this Chocolate Bark.

DIY Chocolate Bark using a base of 4 simple ingredients

While it's simple enough to head to the store to and grab a bar of chocolate, it's more difficult to find a bar of chocolate that hasn't been packaged in plastic. Even my favourite chocolate manufacturer, that previously sold all their chocolate bars wrapped in foil and cardboard — has now switched to plastic instead of foil. I was pretty disappointed when I discovered this opening the last bar of chocolate I purchased.

The next best option. Make chocolate yourself! And it really doesn't take very long.

I mention four simple ingredients as a base, because this recipe can be altered to suit your tastes, your dietary requirement or to suit whatever is in your pantry. You could also skip the dried fruit and use just three ingredients as a base.

What are the four key base ingredients?

  • Cocoa Butter
  • Cocoa Powder (for a rich dark colour)
  • Local Honey (or preferred sweetener such as Agave Nectar)
  • Dried Fruit — we've used cranberries for a festive look but a locally dried fruit would be even better!
Dried Cranberries
Dried Fruit
Cocoa Butter
Cocoa Butter
Cocoa Powder
Cocoa Powder
Natural Raw Local Honey
Natural Raw Local Honey

What else would be nice to include?

  • Australian Pink Salt
  • Vanilla Extract (look for the extract sold in glass bottles rather than plastic).
  • Cinnamon or 5 Spice
  • Macadamia Nuts, Almonds or Hemp Seeds

DIY CHOCOLATE BARK WITH DRIED BERRIES

Catherine Anne Earle
This delicious chocolate treat can be whipped up very quickly, you'll just need to wait for it to cool and harden in the fridge before you can sink your teeth into the natural goodness of this Chocolate Bark.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Course Dessert, Snack
Servings 2

Ingredients
  

  • 250 g Cocoa Butter
  • 100 g Cocoa Powder
  • 100 g Local Honey (or sweetner alternative)
  • 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
  • 1/4 tsp Australian Pink Sea Salt
  • 1/2 cup Dried Fruit (Cranberries)
  • 1/4 cup Crushed Macadamia Nuts (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Line a baking tray with foil and set aside (if you're in a warm environment you may want to place the tray into the fridge to cool).
  • Add the cocoa butter in a double boiler, continue stirring as it melts. Add Cocoa Powder, Honey Extract and Salt.
  • Whisk until you have a smooth consistency.
  • Pour the chocolate mixture onto the foil lined baking tray, and allow to cool for a few minutes.
  • Sprinkle the dried fruit, nuts or seeds over the chocolate.
  • Transfer the chocolate to the fridge or freezer to harden. (The faster it hardens, the sooner you can eat it!)
  • Once ready remove the chocolate from the foil sheet and break the chocolate into bit sized pieces.

Notes

If you'd like to have a frosted look on the top of your chocolate, add all your ingredients except the cocoa powder (and toppings) to your mixing bowl and stir. Remove a small amount of the mixture and set aside. Add the cocoa powder and whisk well. As per the instructions above add dark chocolate mix to the foil lined tray.  Drizzle with the white chocolate mix and add dried fruits and nuts as noted above.
This chocolate will melt quickly so be sure to store it in the fridge. It will last for a few weeks — or less if you just can't resist having a quick snack!
Enjoy your plastic free chocolate treats.
Keyword chocolate, diy, cocoa butter

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Catherine Anne Earle

Author Bio - Catherine Anne Earle

Thanks for reading. I'm Cathy the founder of EORTH Australia, an online store that stocks only plastic free products.

I started EORTH after participating in a Plastic Free July many years ago. A few days into the Plastic Free July challenge I soon became aware of just how damaging plastics were to the environment, and although I was conscious of my consumer choices, products packaged in single use plastic and household products from of plastic materials were still very high on my list of purchases.

After lengthy searches for alternatives to plastic products I soon realised that there were a lot of eco stores that sold some plastic free products, but very few really got down to the heart of the plastics issues and said a big hard "no" to selling products that contained plastics — and that is exactly what EORTH is all about.

I have a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Management and was the owner and founder of Sun Peaks Independent News, a community newspaper based in British Columbia, Canada.

After moving back to Australia several years ago I now reside in Palm Cove a beachside suburb in my hometown of Cairns — the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.

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Suzanne
1 year ago

5 stars
Made this for Christmas as part of homemade gifts in hampers. Sooooo good. Tonight I going to make it again but this time with smarties and other easter type bits for Easter. Love this recipe!

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