Imagine yourself sinking deep into a cozy chair after a long day with a steaming cup of tea. You kick your feet up and treat yourself to a piece of peanut butter chocolate bark. All your cares melt away with each bite, slipping deeper into a delicious homemade paradise. Of course, if you have kids, it might not happen like this, but a girl can dream. Right?
This chocolate bark is a go-to treat of mine. It works perfectly to keep on hand for those days when you crave something sweet and chocolatey. I add it to baskets of homemade goodies at Christmas, and every time I take the bark to a party, I watch it disappear. You can say you worked on it all day when the compliments start rolling in because only we know how easy it is to make. So you’re secret is safe with me.
I found peanut-flavored chocolate melts for this version and decided to pair them with milk chocolate instead of white or dark because I wanted it to taste similar to Reese’s candy. I have tons of ideas for different variations of this simple recipe, and I can’t wait to share them here. Even the one I make at Thanksgiving, which is the most requested. So, stay tuned for that!
Peanut butter chocolate bark Ingredients:
- 1 lb milk chocolate candy melts
- 1 lb peanut butter chocolate candy melts
Tools:
- cookie sheet
- parchment paper
- double boiler
- plastic fork with center tines snapped out (for drizzling)
These chocolate candy melts are convenient for a mom with a schedule. They melt down nice and easy and are ready to go, no tempering needed. I’m sure if you have the time and knowledge to melt real chocolate, it would taste amazing.
Melt the milk chocolate:
Use a saucepan with an inch of water in the bottom and a bowl on top to handle the heat. I pour the chocolate melts into the bowl and turn the heat to medium. Once the water sounds like it’s close to a boil, I turn off the heat and let the steam trapped under the bowl slowly melt the chocolate, and stir until it’s smooth. You do not want the water to boil or your “cooking” the chocolate instead of melting it. No one wants dry clumpy chocolate. The same goes for using the microwave. It’s too easy to get hot spots and overcook the chocolate, ruining the whole batch.
The third step is to save about a 1/4 cup of chocolate until the end for a drizzle. I usually pour it into a small glass bowl and set it near the warm stovetop. Then, I spread the rest of the chocolate as thin as I can on the cookie sheet so, in the end, my candy pieces are not too thick. Keep in mind, that the more layers of flavor you add the thicker the pieces get. Then, pop it in the fridge to set while melting the peanut butter chocolate.
Melt the peanut butter flavored chocolate:
The milk chocolate drizzle.
The next step is a fun and messy one. We are going to fleck the milk chocolate we saved onto the peanut butter chocolate. It’s like the fancy drizzle you see in bakeries. You don’t need a special tool to do this, we use a plastic fork with the two center tines snapped out. I save this little broken fork in my drawer for any time I need to add a pretty decoration to my desserts like brownies, cookies, and chocolate-dipped strawberries.
At this point, you can warm up your bowl of extra milk chocolate if needed. If it’s still melted enough to drizzle then dip the broken fork in and flick your wrist over the bark tray letting the chocolate fly off the fork and land across the peanut butter chocolate. You can do this part however you want. All your lines can go in the same direction or you can crisscross them. You can also take the fork and make a swirl pattern by pressing lightly and moving in circular motions, which is what I did.
Crack the chocolate bark into bite-size pieces.
Place the tray in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. Once set, lift the parchment paper out of the cookie sheet and crack the chocolate into bite-size pieces. You can put them into a pretty bowl or goodie bag or right into your mouth.
