Barking up the wrong tree.

This week I've had the pleasure of making twelve pounds of S'more bark, and twelve pounds of Toffee bark.


A few months ago, the words Pleasure and Bark would not have gone in the same sentence. My first large order started out very sloppy and unforgiving and annoying and just overall not worth my effort. I had no reference point as to how much chocolate I needed, or how many ingredients, or actually how much I needed to make to end up with the correct weight amount in the end.


I ended up running to Country Kitchen multiple times for several items that I needed at the last minute. Not a pretty sight, but I got it done.


So, when I went into the kitchen to start the process of my bark order this time, I went at it with a different attitude. I had ordered lots of product from my wholesaler ahead of time, probably too much. I had plenty of pretzels, toffee, graham crackers and marshmallows too.


Once I started melting the chocolate I began to feel the relaxation that kicks in when I make the pretzels. It's like a zen zone where I just tune everything out and create. Since I had made a large batch one other time, I had a better plan this time. Believe it or not, it does take some actual thinking to get the bark the way I want it.

I prefer the S'more Bark to have the bottom layer white, with graham crackers and pretzels, and then the top layer to be milk chocolate with the mini dehydrated marshmallows in it, then I drizzle the top with white, and then milk. I think it looks best that way, and the same goes for the Toffee Bark. I start with the dark chocolate layer first that has the pretzels, and then the milk chocolate layer that has the toffee. Drizzle with milk, and then dark, and it's done.


Knowing that I prefer it this way means planning my chocolate melting process accordingly. Since most of my pretzels are made with milk chocolate, I have a tendency to melt the milk chocolate first, but obviously with the bark, I do the opposite. I have to melt the bottom layer of chocolate first, let it set up, and then melt the top layer and pour it onto the chilled bottom.


I was also able to measure the chocolate better this time. I placed 3 pounds of chocolate in each bowl, and therefore knew that each tray would be holding approximately 6 pounds of chocolate. One bowl of each kind of chocolate per tray=6 pounds. So, I made two trays of each flavor.


Probably the only slightly frustrating part is that there's a lot of hurry up and wait. With my pretzels, I can be melting chocolate while I'm dipping the pretzels in caramel, and then while I'm covering them in chocolate, I'm melting more caramel. Never any down time.


But with the bark, there's no in between step. You melt chocolate, that's about it. So, unless I get two microwaves, there's not much more I can do. If I plan ahead though, I can have other things to work on while I wait, like this blog for instance. Or, billing, letters, reading, organizing, ordering, phone calls, emails....the list is seriously endless.


So, bring on the bark orders...I'm ready for ya!