Creme Egg Bark

Creme Egg Bark

This week I have yet another recipe involving Creme Eggs to celebrate Spring/Easter. This week's recipe is so simple, it literally took my about 10-15 mins to make this (not including setting time). As you may have guessed from the title this week is all about bark. If you've never heard of Chocolate bark, don't worry it doesn't involve trees! Bark is basically chocolate with yummy bits on top of it cut into random pieces. So if you want to know how I made this mouth watering stuff then keep reading...

All the ingredients

This recipe was inspired by a creme egg bark that I saw on the Girl in the little red kitchen blog, however I adapted it to include a few extras, mainly because I couldn't help myself. You can pretty much add whatever you want to your own bark, it's totally up to you!

For this recipe you will need:

• 400g Plain Chocolate 
• 100g White Chocolate
• 4 Creme Eggs
• 4 Caramel Eggs
• 1 pack of Mini Eggs
• 1 Pack of Milkybar Eggs

You could replace the Mini eggs with something like Smarties or M&M's if you'd prefer, but as I was making this Easter themed I stuck to eggs. Feel free to get creative with this you could even replace the Plain chocolate with Milk, or use white for the base and drizzle it with the plain chocolate, go crazy!

Making this Bark couldn't be easier, you'll want to start by placing some baking paper onto a baking sheet, then put this aside. You'll want to make sure you use a baking sheet that has a sort of lip and isn't completely flat as we are going to pour the chocolate onto it, and you won't want it running off of the edge. Next it's all about melting the chocolate, you will need to make sure you temper the chocolate so that it stays shiny once it's turned into bark. I did this by following the method suggested in the original recipe. So I melted 300g of the plain chocolate over a 'bain marie', which basically involves boiling water in a pan, and then sitting a bowl on the pan, place the chocolate into the pan and then stir until completely melted. At this point remove the bowl from the pan, making sure not to burn your hands, then put your remaining 100g of plain chocolate into the already melted stuff, and mix it together until completely smooth. Pour half of the melted plain chocolate onto your tray and spread it out as much as you can into either a square or rectangle.

Now comes the fun part! Take your creme and caramel eggs and crush them. I did this by putting a small plate on top of them and applying pressure, you'll find they crack easily. Then you want to arrange these on top of the chocolate. Once happy with your placement you can throw on your Mini eggs and Milkybar Eggs, until you are completely happy. Then use the remainder of the plain chocolate to cover the crushed eggs and mini eggs completely, and put to one side. It's at this point that you can melt your white chocolate, however you like, I chose the same method as the plain, because it was already set up. When your white chocolate is melted take a about half a spoon full at a time and run it back and forth over the chocolate to create a lined pattern. I also used some of my white chocolate to cover up some of my mini eggs that hadn't been covered by the plain. 

The bark before setting

When you are done it should look something along the lines of the above. All that's left to do is to let it set, you can do this in a number of ways, in the freezer or fridge, or if your house is cool enough you can just leave it on the side to set. If you put it in the freezer it will only need about 30 mins, in the fridge or on the side I would give it about 1 hour. Once set you can cut your bark into whatever shape or size you are happy with, I went for small squares so that I had plenty to share around.

Finished Bark

There you have it a super simple bake you can make in no time at all, which you can then share with your friends/family for Easter. I am off to visit family in Wakefield this weekend so I intend to take it up there with me and share it around, I doubt it will last very long!

Have you ever made any chocolate bark, how did yours turn out?