Spiced Dark Chocolate Bark with Hazelnuts and Dried Apricots

(Healthy Green Kitchen)

Your Valentine is sure to love this delicious, easy-to-make dark chocolate bark. Refrigerate the bark until hardened, which means you can wait a few hours or let it chill overnight. Recipe makes 4 to 6 servings.

Cook Time:3 hours

Prep Time:20 min

Total Time:3 hours20 min

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

12 ounce dark chocolate (or 1 package of dark chocolate chips), fair-trade, if possible

2/3 cup skinned, chopped hazelnuts, toasted for 3-5 minutes in a 300 degree F oven (toast until fragrant and make sure they don’t burn), then allowed to cool (you could also use Marcona almonds or cashews)

2/3 cup chopped dried apricots, preferably unsulphered/unsweetened (dried mango, dried cranberries or dried cherries would also be nice)

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (optional)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

generous pinch of coarse sea salt

Preparation:

Combine toasted nuts, chopped dried fruit, cayenne pepper, and ground cinnamon in a small bowl. Mix well.

Place two-thirds of the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in 30-second increments until the chocolate is just melted. Add the rest of the chocolate and stir until smooth.

Pour chocolate onto a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Use a spatula to smooth out the chocolate evenly (it won’t cover the whole pan and that’s fine).

Sprinkle the nut/dried fruit mixture over the chocolate and press down firmly so these don’t loosen too much when you cut the bark. Sprinkle everything with coarse sea salt, then refrigerate for a few hours (or preferably overnight) until hardened. Use your hands or a sharp knife to break the bark into pieces.

Store in an air-tight container and consume within a few days.