Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovely people out there, whatever your relationship status. Because if there is one thing out there we can all get heart-eyes over, it’s chocolate, right?
I’ve got the perfect last-minute recipe for you today, just in case you’re like me and somehow completely forgot it was Valentine’s Day today. Yep, I run a baking blog that’s been posting exclusively pink recipes for the last two weeks, and yet somehow I still managed to forget. There’s no hope for me.
Good news is that Katie forgot too.
We’ve made chocolate bark around here before – remember this pretty-as-a-picture sunset bark? Or my take on candy cane Christmas bark? It’s great to make because it involves minimal skill and effort to make something that looks super professional and tastes wonderful. And people are never going to be sad if they receive chocolate, are they?
I’ve added some gummy hearts and lips sweets (candy) to the top of my valentine’s bark, which may seem a bit weird, but actually works surprisingly well. Chocolate and Haribo do go together, I promise! Add some cute heart-shaped sprinkles, and some drizzles of pink coloured white chocolate, and you’ve got yourself a last-minute Valentine’s gift to be proud of.
I can’t help you with the card though, that’s all on you.
- 300g (10.5oz) dark or bitter-sweet chocolate
- 100g (3.5oz) white chocolate
- Gummy hearts and lips
- Sprinkles
- Red food colouring (powdered or chocolate-safe)
- Place two thirds of the dark chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave on medium in 30 second bursts, mixing well between each. Once the chocolate has completely melted, and feels very warm to the touch, add the remaining third of the dark chocolate pieces and stir together until completely melted. This will help to temper the chocolate so it has a nice texture to it. Set aside.
- Melt the white chocolate using the same method as for the dark chocolate.
- Whilst both types of chocolate are still warm, pour the dark chocolate onto a baking sheet that has been lined with baking parchment or greaseproof paper. Spread out into a rectangle (about A4 paper sized) and then drizzle or pipe most of the white chocolate on top in lines going from one side to the other (either the long way or the short way, but not both ways). Take a toothpick or knife and gently draw through the chocolate in the opposite way than your white chocolate stripes.
- Press the gummy hearts and lips into the top of the chocolate, and add some sprinkles as well if you want. Add a little bit of red food colouring to the remaining white chocolate and mix together - you are aiming for a pink colour. Once happy, drizzle or pipe the pink chocolate over the top of the bark.
- Place the bark in the fridge and leave to set completely (1-2 hours). Once set, remove from the greaseproof paper and either break or cut into pieces.
- Always use powdered or chocolate-safe food colourings when colouring chocolate. Normal water-based food colourings will cause the chocolate to seize up and be unusable.
- The bark will keep for a good few weeks. Make sure to keep somewhere cool (not necessarily in the fridge).
Neither of us forgot really though, we had chilli! What is more romantic than that? Fiery like our love?
Okay okay, I admit it, we had other things on our minds! Floridian things. Best February ever x