Candy Week: Mint Citrus Chocolate Bark

C – I didn’t think working with gourmet chocolate and making candy bars would be so tough.

Jessica should have warned me a little more before we decided to make things with chocolate for candy week. She knew it was going to be tough. I didn’t think it was going to be this tough. I didn’t know it was going to be so tedious and frustrating.

The trouble with chocolate is, if it’s not done right, the cocoa butter and the chocolate could separate and form crystals when drying. Then, the chocolate can be dull and not pretty.

Just melting chocolate and making candy bars usually leaves streaks and/or dullness in the chocolate. Also, making your chocolate hard and easy to unmold is part of the challenge.

We wanted to do what the professionals do. Professionals use a technique called tempering. It’s long and tedious and it still doesn’t guarantee the best results. When done right, the chocolate has a beautiful shine. The chocolate also dries quickly and breaks easily.

Jessica wanted to try a new technique of tempering and making. A more accurate way of doing it. We thought it worked at first. But, after we left it overnight, the cocoa butter separated once it completely dried.

The chocolate still tasted great. But, it didn’t look appetizing. We were both disappointed that we had to start back a square one.

We wanted to figure out a fool proof way to keep chocolate from streaking and not having to temper it. Jessica said we could use a cheat for it. We could try adding just a bit of butter. It worked. Of course, it’s not guaranteed to work and last long. But, it worked for us. It was fast and dried quickly. The overnight test worked, too. Jessica and I are happy.

This bark was great and can be served during the holiday season. I was surprised I liked it so much. Jessica taught me how to candy citrus and we tried a new technique for candying mints. It didn’t work out well.

She then showed me her own technique, which was really easy and worked nicely. I loved the clean minty taste. I was surprised that the citrus, chocolate and mint all went well together. Every bite needed to have the combination to be really good. But, they were all good on their own, too. It was an easy recipe, although we had to wait awhile for everything to be done.

Candy Week: Mint Citrus Chocolate Bark

Recipe type: Dessert

Author: Christina

Prep time: 2 hours

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 2 hours 45 mins

Serves: 1 pound

Ingredients

2 lemons
2 oranges
20 mint leaves
5 cups sugar, divided
1 egg white
2 cups dark chocolate chips
1 tsp butter

Instructions

Candied Orange and Lemon

Using a line zester, zest one orange and one lemon.
Slice one orange and one lemon thinly.
Place one cup of sugar and enough water to cover the sugar in a sauce pan. Add zest and citrus slices in to the pot and let boil.
Once boiling, immediately strain.
In the same pan, add another cup of sugar and just enough water to cover the sugar. Add the citrus and the zest again and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, strain.
Again add another cup of sugar and just enough water to cover the sugar add citrus. Let sugar reduce on low until it boils all the way down to a thick syrup.
Turn off heat. Strain once again.
Remove the thinly sliced pieces of citrus and coat with sugar. Make sure to do this one at a time so they won’t break a part. Place on a cooling rack to dry.
Toss the zest in sugar. Place on a cooling rack to dry.

Candied Mint Leaves

Place egg white in a small bowl, beat lightly.
Using one hand, dip into the egg white and light coat a mint leaf. Remove and place into sugar. Shake off excess.
Place on a cooling rack to dry. Repeat until done.

Chocolate Mint and Citrus Bark

On a parchment lined baking sheet, randomly place half of the candied mint, citrus slices and peels.
Melt chocolate adding butter. Once completely melted, pour over the top of the mint and citrus candy.
Decorate with more of the citrus and mint.
Make sure you can get candied citrus and mint in one bite, because it taste best that way.
Let cool and harden.
Break into pieces.
Serve.
Enjoy!

Try this recipe when you want to share something different with your family and friends. Something they don’t have everyday, since it does take awhile to make.