Winter Bark

Posted by Brette in Food

I’m a candymaking machine (which only makes me think of that famous I Love Lucy episode in the candy factory). I made Martha’s Winter Bark from page 228 of the December Living.

Ready to swirl

Ready to swirl

If you’re afraid of candymaking, this is a recipe for you. You melt bittersweet chocolate and white chocolate. Martha says to use a double boiler, but being a gal of the modern age, I used the microwave ( I am just so cutting edge). Then you mix some peanuts in the bittersweet chocolate and dump it out on a piece of waxed paper or parchment on a baking sheet. Then drop glops of the white chocolate over it and swirl it with a skewer or cake tester. Let it cool

Swirled

Swirled

then break it into pieces. Super, super simple. It tastes pretty good. Nothing incredibly exciting, but good. Next time, I would use almonds instead of peanuts. This candy is really pretty and makes a nice gift.

I’ve also made two other candy recipes recently. One is called

Open up...

Open up...

Opera Fudge, and is something I saw on Martha last year. I don’t have any photos to post from this because my hands were coated in candy throughout the process. Basically you cook the candy to soft ball stage, pour it out and let it cool. Then you plop your butt in a comfy chair, in front of a tv show which you do not want to change the channel of (because you’re not going to be able to change it), and you knead the candy for about half an hour. At one point I became a little panicked. I was home alone and all I could think of was the house starting on fire and me being unable to open the door to get out because my hands were coated in a huge, horrible, nasty sticky mess.

It was truly weird though. Just when you reach that panicked point where you think the candy has come to life and is going to eat you alive, it gets warm and morphs into a ball and is no longer sticky at all. Very, very strange. Then you make balls and dip it in chocolate. The consensus here was that it tasted good but was not worth all the effort.

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3 Responses

  • Stephanie Baker says:

    OMG! This is the perfect gift for my chocoholic sister! The way you have photos of different steps in the process is a huge help! Thanks for suggesting almonds instead of peanuts too. It so nice I can visit your blog to read about your experiences BEFORE I attempt the creation in my kitchen 🙂

  • Maegen says:

    Im making this and a peanut butter version at party favors at my sisters wedding shower. I hope people like it.

  • I think they will like. Putting it in a pretty package will help sell it! Let me know how it goes.



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