Almond Bark

The secret to its awesome popularity might be rooted in the natural simplicity and healthy nature of Almond Bark. In fact, there are only two ingredients in our Chocolate Almond Bark. You guessed it: Chocolate and Almonds! This makes our Almond Bark one of the healthiest options in our line-up. For people looking for a sweet fix without the extra cream and other ingredients found in most confections, Chocolate Almond Bark can be a great choice.

For our recipe today, we are making 1 lb. slabs of Chocolate Almond Bark, which is enough for 8 people to each enjoy a 2 oz. piece. If you want a bigger batch, you easily scale the recipe by doubling, tripling, or quadrupling the ingredients.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

• 8 oz. of couverture chocolate (blocks or chips)
• 2 cups of raw Almonds
• 1 double boiler
• Candy thermometer
• Baking sheet
• Cookie sheet
• Wax paper
• Glove

Couverture Chocolate

Let’s start with the chocolate. The quality of your Chocolate Almond Bark will only be as good as the chocolate you select for the recipe. Choose premium quality couverture chocolate blocks or chips. To be couverture, the chocolate must have at least 35% cocoa solids and 31% cocoa butter. The more cocoa butter in the chocolate, the better it will temper. We recommend using dark chocolate, but you can substitute milk, white or extra dark chocolate in this recipe if you prefer. Measure out 8 oz. and set it aside.

Then select high quality whole raw Almonds and place them on a baking sheet in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Remove and let cool.

Once the Almonds come out of the oven, you can begin the process of tempering the chocolate. Unfortunately, you can’t just melt chocolate because if you do, it will not set up correctly and you will be left with a grainy, dull, and brittle texture. Tempering chocolate is the process of stabilizing the cocoa butter in the chocolate to give it a smooth texture and glossy finish when it hardens.

How to temper chocolate

• Half fill the bottom part of the double boiler with water.
• Bring the water to a boil to make steam.
• Place small chocolate blocks or chips on the top part of the double boiler.
• Gently stir the chocolate just until it reaches its melting point and has transformed into a liquid form.
• Remove the top boiler from the heat and continue stirring the chocolate to cool it down until it reaches a temperature of 88°F.

Use a candy thermometer to confirm the chocolate has cooled down to 88°F. Now it is ready to use. By this time the Almonds should have cooled down as well, and you are ready for the final step.

Pour the chocolate into a large mixing bowl or saucepan and add the almonds. Then, using one hand to hold the bowl, use the other hand to thoroughly mix the chocolate and Almonds together. Once they are thoroughly mixed, grab a big handful of the mix and bring it onto the center of a wax paper placed over a cookie sheet. Continue grabbing all the Chocolate/Almond mix until the entire mix is on the center of the cookie sheet.

The final step is to gently slap the corner of the cookie sheet onto the counter to spread out the Chocolate/Almond mix into a thin slab. Rotate the cooked sheet as necessary to spread the mix evenly across the sheet. Once you have the mix spread out into a smooth layer, set it aside at room temperature for 30 minutes. If you scaled up the recipe, you would need multiple cookie sheets to make multiple slabs. Once the chocolate slab is dry, use a knife to score the top of the slab into sections approximately 2' square so they can break off easily.

Now you have the secret to making awesome Chocolate Almond Bark. Enjoy!